After providing the necessary mathematical background needed, the book discusses kinematics, balance laws and constitutive relations for simple materials. Major emphasis is placed on discussing relatively new ideas such as material frame-indifference, the implications of the second law of themodynamics, material symmetry etc. The text shows how under suitable assumptions the classical theories of fluid mechanics, solid mechanics (including the linear theory of elasticity), and rigid-body dynamics follow from the general continuum equations. This book is intended as an advanced undergraduate (or a graduate level) textbook in continuum mechanics and its applications. NEW TO THE SECOND EDITION: A number of new topics have been discussed, some of which are: * Higher-order (in particular, fourth-order) tensors * Differentiation of tensors * Exact solutions to problems in nonlinear linearized elasticity * Components of tensors and their derivatives with respect to curvilinear coordinates * Conversion of tensorial expressions to engineering form.