Abstract Algebra

Prior to the nineteenth century, algebra meant the study of the solution of polynomial equations. By the twentieth century algebra came to encompass the study of abstract, axiomatic systems such as groups, rings, and fields. This presentation provides an account of the intellectual lineage behind many of the basic concepts, results, and theories of abstract algebra.

This textbook provides an accessible account of the history of abstract algebra, tracing a range of topics in modern algebra and number theory back to their modest presence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and exploring the impact of ideas on the development of the subject.

This text seeks to generate interest in abstract algebra by introducing each new structure and topic via a real-world application. The down-to-earth presentation is accessible to a readership with no prior knowledge of abstract algebra. Students are led to algebraic concepts and questions in a natural way through their everyday experiences.

The present volume is the first of three that will be published under the general title Lectures in Abstract Algebra. These vol­ umes are based on lectures which the author has given during the past ten years at the University of North Carolina, at The Johns Hopkins University, and at Yale "University. The general plan of the work IS as follows: The present first volume gives an introduction to abstract algebra and gives an account of most of the important algebraIc concepts. In a treatment of this type it is impossible to give a comprehensive account of the topics which are introduced. Nevertheless we have tried to go beyond the foundations and elementary properties of the algebraic sys­ tems. This has necessitated a certain amount of selection and omission. We feel that even at the present stage a deeper under­ standing of a few topics is to be preferred to a superficial under­ standing of many. The second and third volumes of this work will be more special­ ized in nature and will attempt to give comprehensive accounts of the topics which they treat. Volume II will bear the title Linear Algebra and will deal with the theorv of vectQ!_JlP. -a. ces. . . . . Volume III, The Theory of Fields and Galois Theory, will be con­ cerned with the algebraic structure offieras and with valuations of fields. All three volumes have been planned as texts for courses.