The book treats problems of the ionization, excitation, recombination, energy partition and energy transfer kinetics of low-temperature, weakly ionized plasmas. Following a review of the parameters characterizing a low temperature plasma, including quasi-neutrality and equilibrium, consideration is given to the elementary processes of elastic and inelastic collision and radiative transfer in a low-temperature plasma, and the radiative transfer of excitation. Criteria for the appearance of various types of nonequilibrium are examined. The kinetics of the population of excited states is discussed, and the kinetics of ionization and recombination by various mechanisms is considered. Attention is also given to the electron velocity distribution and the energy balance of the electron gas, particularly as they relate to inelastic collisions and atomic energy level distributions, and to unsteady nonequilibrium plasmas, and the kinetics of molecular plasmas.