Problems in extremal graph theory have traditionally been tackled by ingenious methods which made use of the structure of extremal graphs. In this book, an update of his 1978 book Extremal Graph Theory, the author focuses on a trend towards probabilistic methods. He demonstrates both the direct use of probability theory and, more importantly, the fruitful adoption of a probabilistic frame of mind when tackling main line extremal problems.

Essentially self-contained, the book does not merely catalog results, but rather includes considerable discussion on a few of the deeper results. The author addresses pure mathematicians, especially combinatorialists and graduate students taking graph theory, as well as theoretical computer scientists. He assumes a mature familiarity with combinatorial methods and an acquaintance with basic graph theory. The book is based on the NSF-CBMS Regional Conference on Graph Theory held at Emory University in June, 1984.