A Course on Group Theory (Dover Books on Mathematics) Revised ed. Edition

This is a remarkable text that assumes the reader has had an initial exposure to group theory but is otherwise not particularly mathematically mature. Yet it manages to cover a lot of ground. The author passed away in 1983 at an untimely age, and the text is a bit dated (on p. 67, it talks about the Janko group being recently discovered -- the much more massive Monster group would not be discovered until a few years later, and the full classification of finite simple groups would not be complete until the 21st century).However, this book is probably the most accessible second look at group theory that I have encountered. It has a "classical" feel with a strong emphasis on group actions, and is totally accessible to an undergrad in their second or third year who knows basic facts like Lagrange's theorem, what a normal subgroup and quotient group are, groups of prime order being cyclic, and all that nice stuff. It's a bit surprising that representation theory isn't introduced formally, but I suppose that it's material for another course, and the author brings up some of the general ideas implicitly in the exercises.

This awesome Dover reprint of a Classic is written with the Third year undergrad in mind but suitable for advanced first year and curious high school student. A Must have for Math Majors...

Majorly excellent modern treatment of groups with all important topix.would recommend this book highly- well written nice probs also!!!

For those who need mathematics in their lives

I took this course as part of my pure mathematics degree. I did have a terrible teacher, but I am a book learner, so that never bothered me. To give you an idea of the kind of mathemetician I was in college, I got 110% with extra credit in DE and PDE. That's no small feat. On several finals I had the highest scores in class. However, I failed every test in Group Theory. It's the only subject in my life, no matter how hard I worked I couldn't grasp it, the first time I really needed a teacher. But for a pity grade, I would not have passed, and this was required. I also struggled in advanced Cal I and II (theoretical) Cal I,II,III I had A's. These courses weeded me out of advanced mathematics. The people who did well in this course were the CS majors who had almost no math. They could conceptualize better and seemed to grasp it naturally.

I have much used this book whenever I wanted to find a theorem or its proof.

This book is jam packed with exercises and examples sure to keep you interested. My copy is showing some wear and this book is good enough I'll probably buy a crisp new copy. See the table of contents.

Might be slightly difficult for those not well versed in mathematics.