Abstract Algebra: A First Course

This book is fantastic. It is fairly cheap and lightweight, to the relief of my wallet and my spine. It manages to express the subject in a way that is concise and thorough. It does require you to think: It gives you definitions and a few, disparate examples so you can get a feeling for the scope of the concept, but it doesn't spoon feed you anything. If you are looking for a book with glossy pages and fancy, full color pictures, you will be disappointed. If you want to learn or teach undergrad Abstract Algebra, though, this is an amazing book.

I love this book. Good quality

A beautifully written text that is concise but rigorous. It offers a more gentle introduction to the subject and is as good a book as any for a first course. A good alternative to baby Herstein.

Our kiddo took this last spring during her first year at college. It's a nice, small book. And full of weird math!

This book is very well written and should be a good addition to your book shelf wether you already master abstract algebra or are new to it. Looks better than most school books to .

I am afraid that the quality of the printing of this book is very poor indeed. The most extreme is from Section 22 page 227 onwards The print for the latter is faint and in stark contrast to the early sections for which the print is, if anything, rather dark. Normally I would return the book and request a refund. However I live in South Africa and sending the book by post or courier is an expensive and, in essence, infeasible option. I do just want to record my disappointment. The book itself is well-written and provides an excellent account of Abstract Algebra.

I am a math teacher (teaching lower-level math at a university) who is reviewing abstract algebra after 20 years of not thinking much about it. I have amassed quite a number of abstract algebra books over the past few months and have been jumping around between them as I work through this stuff. I have decided to review several of them. So here's what I think of this one:I have a few more texts to work through, but so far, this is generally my favorite for first-exposure abstract algegra. The explanations are good. The text is direct and to the point for the most part--not a lot of needless fluff and fancy, cute, little distractions. The examples are good, although it could use more.I guess my only gripe with this text is the same one I have for all the rest--solutions should not be secrets; put them in the back of the book. It's poor form for learning if, after you've worked through a problem, you do not know if you've done it correctly. That's a good way to promote faulty logic and bad habits (and waste a lot of time). The reader of this text is not going to be a junior high school student that peeks at the answers and copies them down without doing any work. It's almost an insult to be treated as such. Immediate feedback is important for learning, which you cannot get if you just have to rely on the fact that you're perfect--which of course, you are not, especially when you are trying to learn this stuff. Also, there could be a few more routine problems for understanding and it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all.Anyway... off the soapbox... this is a book that is worth having in your abstract algebra collection and if you only get one book for your first exposure, this is a strong contender for--if not flat-out--the best choice.

This is a very clear and concise introduction to group theory. The author is interesting without digressing or talking down. Would definitely recommend to anyone starting out in this field.