Abstract: We examine the theory of micromagnetics developed by W. F. Brown. We show that in the case often considered, with exchange energy omitted, the minimum of the free energy is not attained for uniaxial materials but is attained for cubic materials. A study of the minimizing sequences reveals that these accurately model many features of observed domain structure. Finally, we reexamine the so-called "coercivity paradox" from the viewpoint of nonlinear stability theory.