This book provides a systematic and thorough introduction to the classical laminate theory based on the theory for plane elasticity elements and classical (shear-rigid) plate elements. It focus on unidirectional lamina which can be described based on orthotropic constitutive equations and their composition to layered laminates. In addition to the elastic behavior, failure is investigated based on the maximum stress, maximum strain, Tsai - Hill and the Tsai - Wu criteria.