This volume brings together a selection of key papers by this soil mechanics pioneer. The papers have been selected on the basis of their importance in the development of soil mechanics and to highlight the nature and range of subjects that Bishop investigated during the thirty-seven years of his career.   

Bishop's most influential paper was presented at an ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) conference in Boulder, Colorado, in 1960, and while it made a big impression at the time, it is now in danger of disappearing from sight. In addition, two of Bishop's very significant papers were published in the late 1970s in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, not normal reading for the soil mechanics fraternity, and thus became known to only a few people. That has remained the case to this day, and the fact that these two papers have not been republished was the initial motivation for creating this volume. In addition, it is nearly 40 years since Bishop retired from his professorial position at Imperial College and a fitting time to remember Bishop with both a biography, The Bishop Method,  and this volume of his papers.

In addition to the Bishop papers, there is a paper by Laurie Wesley and Richard Pugh reflecting their research with Bishop. Separate papers were to have been written after the completion of their PhDs, with Bishop as the lead author, but because of his illness this didn't happen. The opportunity has now been taken to present the comprehensive research in these papers, as a tribute to their supervisor and mentor.

A new sampling tool for use in cohesionless sands below the ground water level (1946)
Some factors involved in the design of a large earth dam in the Thames valley (1948)
Undrained triaxial tests on saturated sands and their significance in the general theory of shear strength (1950)
The use of the slip circle in the stability analysis of slopes (1954); The principle of effective stress (1954)
The relevance of the triaxial test to the solution of stability problems (1960)
Selset Reservoir: design and performance of the embankment (1962)
The strength of soils as engineering materials. 6th Rankine Lecture (1966)
Progressive failure with special reference to the mechanism causing it (1967)
The influence of pore-water tension on the strength of clay (1975)
The influence of high pore-water pressure on the strength of cohesionless soils (1977)
Thirty-five years of soil testing (1981)
The behaviour of a soft alluvial clay revealed by laboratory tests and trial embankments, Wesley, L.D & R.S Pugh (2019)

For professionals and students in soil mechanics, geotechnical engineering and engineering geology, and all those interested in engineering history.

'...This is a valuable collection bringing together in one place documentation of a number of significant steps in the development of soil mechanics'. NZ Geomechanics News

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