At the present time, the average undergraduate mathematics major finds mathematics heavily compartmentalized. After the calculus, he takes a course in analysis and a course in algebra. Depending upon his interests (or those of his department), he takes courses in special topics. Ifhe is exposed to topology, it is usually straightforward point set topology; if he is exposed to geom etry, it is usually classical differential geometry. The exciting revelations that there is some unity in mathematics, that fields overlap, that techniques of one field have applications in another, are denied the undergraduate. He must wait until he is well into graduate work to see interconnections, presumably because earlier he doesn't know enough. These notes are an attempt to break up this compartmentalization, at least in topology-geometry. What the student has learned in algebra and advanced calculus are used to prove some fairly deep results relating geometry, topol ogy, and group theory. (De Rham's theorem, the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for surfaces, the functorial relation of fundamental group to covering space, and surfaces of constant curvature as homogeneous spaces are the most note worthy examples.) In the first two chapters the bare essentials of elementary point set topology are set forth with some hint ofthe subject's application to functional analysis.

This text contains a detailed introduction to general topology and an introduction to algebraic topology via its most classical and elementary segment. Proofs of theorems are separated from their formulations and are gathered at the end of each chapter, making this book appear like a problem book and also giving it appeal to the expert as a handbook. The book includes about 1,000 exercises.

This book is the result of reworking part of a rather lengthy course of lectures of which we delivered several versions at the Leningrad and Moscow Universities. In these lectures we presented an introduction to the fundamental topics of topology: homology theory, homotopy theory, theory of bundles, and topology of manifolds. The structure of the course was well determined by the guiding term elementary topology, whose main significance resides in the fact that it made us use a rather simple apparatus. tn this book we have retained {hose sections of the course where algebra plays a subordinate role. We plan to publish the more algebraic part of the lectures as a separate book. Reprocessing the lectures to produce the book resulted in the profits and losses inherent in such a situation: the rigour has increased to the detriment of the intuitiveness, the geometric descriptions have been replaced by formulas needing interpretations, etc. Nevertheless, it seems to us tha·t the book retains the main qualities of our lectures: their elementary, systematic, and pedagogical features. The preparation of the reader is assumed to be limi ted to the usual knowledge of set ·theory, algebra, and calculus which mathematics students should master after the first year and a half of studies. The exposition is accompanied by examples and exercises. We hope that the book can be used as a topology textbook.

This book is intended as a one-semester course in general topology, a.k.a. point-set topology, for undergraduate students as well as first-year graduate students. Such a course is considered a prerequisite for further studying analysis, geometry, manifolds, and certainly, for a career of mathematical research. Researchers may find it helpful especially from the comprehensive indices.General topology resembles a language in modern mathematics. Because of this, the book is with a concentration on basic concepts in general topology, and the presentation is of a brief style, both concise and precise. Though it is hard to determine exactly which concepts therein are basic and which are not, the author makes efforts in the selection according to personal experience on the occurrence frequency of notions in advanced mathematics, and to related books that have received admirable reviews.This book also contains exercises for each chapter with selected solutions. Interrelationships among concepts are taken into account frequently. Twelve particular topological spaces are repeatedly exploited, which serve as examples to learn new concepts based on old ones.

Classroom-tested and much-cited, this concise text is designed for undergraduates. It offers a valuable and instructive introduction to the basic concepts of topology, taking an intuitive rather than an axiomatic viewpoint. 1962 edition.