Preface

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book, it took me years to write, will you
take a look?
JOHN LENNON AND PAUL MCCARTNEY, Paperback Writer, single

Although I wrote the first edition of this book more than twenty years
ago, my goals for it remain the same. I want students to receive a solid
introduction to the traditional topics. I want readers to come away with
the view that abstract algebra is a contemporary subjectthat its concepts and methodologies are being used by working mathematicians,
computer scientists, physicists, and chemists. I want students to enjoy
reading the book. To this end, I have included lines from popular songs,
poems, quotations, biographies, historical notes, dozens of photographs,
hundreds of figures, numerous tables and charts, and reproductions of
stamps and currency that honor mathematicians. I want students to be
able to do computations and to write proofs. Accordingly, I have
included an abundance of exercises to develop both skills.
Changes for the seventh edition include 120 new exercises, new
theorems and examples, and a freshening of the quotations and biographies. I have also expanded the supplemental material for abstract algebra available at my website.
These changes accentuate and enhance the hallmark features that
have made previous editions of the book a comprehensive, lively, and
engaging introduction to the subject:
Extensive coverage of groups, rings, and fields, plus a variety of
non-traditional special topics
A good mixture of now more than 1750 computational and theoretical exercises appearing in each chapter and in Supplementary
Exercise sets that synthesize concepts from multiple chapters
Worked-out examplesnow totaling 275providing thorough
practice for key concepts
Computer exercises performed using interactive software available
on my website
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Preface

A large number of applications from scientific and computing fields,

as well as from everyday life
Numerous historical notes and biographies that illuminate the people and events behind the mathematics
Annotated suggested readings and media for interesting further
exploration of topics.
My websiteaccessible at www.d.umn.edu/~jgallian or through
Cengages book companion site at www.cengage.com/math/gallian
offers a wealth of additional online resources supporting the book,
including:
True/false questions
Flash cards
Essays on learning abstract algebra, doing proofs, and reasons why
abstract algebra is a valuable subject to learn
Links to abstract algebra-related websites and software packages
. . . and much, much more.
Additionally, Cengage offers the following student and instructor
ancillaries to accompany the book:
A Student Solutions Manual, available for purchase separately, with
worked-out solutions to the odd-numbered exercises in the book
(ISBN-13: 978-0-547-16539-4; ISBN-10: 0-547-16539-0)
An online laboratory manual, written by Julianne Rainbolt and me,
with exercises designed to be done with the free computer algebra
system software GAP
An online Instructors Solutions Manual with solutions to the evennumbered exercises in the book and additional test questions and
solutions
Online instructor answer keys to the books computer exercises and
the exercises in the GAP lab manual.
Connie Day was the copyeditor and Robert Messer was the accuracy
reviewer. I am grateful to each of them for their careful reading of the
manuscript. I also wish to express my appreciation to Janine Tangney,
Daniel Seibert, and Molly Taylor from Cengage Learning, as well as
Tamela Ambush and the Cengage production staff.
I greatly valued the thoughtful input of the following people, who
kindly served as reviewers for the seventh edition:
Rebecca Berg, Bowie State University; Monte Boisen, University of
Idaho; Tara Brendle, Louisiana State University; Jeff Clark, Elon
University; Carl Eckberg, San Diego State University; Tom Farmer,
Miami University; Yuval Flicker, Ohio State University; Ed Hinson,