This standard text, written for junior and senior undergraduates, is unusual in that its presentation is accessible enough for the beginner, yet its thoroughness and mathematical rigor provide the more advanced student with an exceptionally comprehensive treatment of every aspect of modern algebra. It especially lends itself to use by beginning graduate students unprepared in modern algebra.The presentation opens with a study of algebraic structures in general; the first part then carries the development from natural numbers through rings and fields, vector spaces, and polynomials. The second part (originally published as a separate volume) is made up of five chapters on the real and complex number fields, algebraic extensions of fields, linear operations, inner product spaces, and the axiom of choice.For the benefit of the beginner who can best absorb the principles of algebra by solving problems, the author has provided over 1300 carefully selected exercises. "There is a vast amount of material in these books and a great deal is either new or presented in a new form." — Mathematical Reviews. Preface. List of Symbols. Exercises. Index. 28 black-and-white line illustrations.