Developments in experimental methods are providing an increasingly detailed understanding of shock compression phenomena on the bulk, intermediate, and molecular scales. This third volume in a series of reviews of the curent state of knowledge covers several diverse areas. The first group of chapters addresses fundamental physical and chemical aspects of the response of condensed matter to shock comression: equations of state, molecular-dynamic analysis, deformation of materials, spectroscopic methods. Two further chapters focus on a particular group of materials: ceramics. Another chapter discusses shock-induced reaction of condensed-phase explosives. And a final pair of chapters considers shock phenomena at low stresses from the point of view of continuum mechanics.