Java is now over twenty years old, and the classic book, Core Java, covers, in meticulous detail, not just the language but all core libraries and a multitude of changes between versions, spanning two volumes and well over 2,000 pages. However, if you just want to be productive with modern Java, there is a much faster, easier pathway for learning the language and core libraries. In this book, I don’t retrace history and don’t dwell on features of past versions.