The paper is the summary of lectures given in São Carlos, Brazil during the 2004 Summer School on Statistical Mechanics. My objective was to provide the students with some basic tools necessary to study the thermodynamics of Coulomb systems. I have restricted myself to simple models and techniques, which nevertheless, when used correctly can give a clear insight into the fundamental physics behind various complex phenomena that appear when the interactions between the system's constituents are dominated by the long ranged Coulomb force.
