This book is written as an introduction to higher algebra for students with a background of a year of claculus. The objective of the book is to give students enough experience in the algebraic theory of the integers and polynomials to appreciate the basic concepts of abstract algebra.
From the reviews:
"The user-friendly exposition is appropriate for the intended audience. Exercises often appear in the text at the point they are relevant, as well as at the end of the section or chapter. Hints for selected exercises are given at the end of the book. There is sufficient material for a two-semester course and various suggestions for one-semester courses are provided. Although the overall organization remains the same in the second edition¿Changes include the following: greater emphasis on finite groups, more explicit use of homomorphisms, increased use of the Chinese remainder theorem, coverage of cubic and quartic polynomial equations, and applications which use the discrete Fourier transform." MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS