Topology

Topology 2nd Edition

5 stars (The best rigorous introduction to general topology!) - I used to own the 1975's first edition of this title since the late 1990's, but quite recently purchased the new edition as well, and donated the old book to our campus library. Before anything else, let me express that from the many topology texts that I have come across over the years, this one easily stands out as the best rigorous introduction for a beginning graduate student. It covers all the standard material for a first course in general topology starting with a full chapter on set theory, and now in the second edition includes a rather extensive treatment of the elemantary algebraic topology. The style of writing is student-friendly, the topics are nicely motivated, (counter-)examples are given where they were needed, many diagrams provided, the chapter exercises relevant with the correct degree of difficulty, and there are virtually no typos. The 2nd edition fine-tunes the exposition throughout, including a better paragraph formatting of the material and also greatly expands on the treatment of algebraic topology, making up for 14 total chapters (as opposed to eight in the first edition). A notable minor issue in the first edition was the consistent usage of the third person masculine pronoun in the discussions, specially in the foreword, for addressing all possible readers of the book, but this has fortunately been revised in the 2000's edition. Eventhough a few contending general topology texts --such as a recent title published in the Walter Rudin Series-- have started to hit the academic markets, Munkres will no doubt remain as the classic, tried-&-trusted source of learning and reference for generations of mathematics students. The one thing that should be mentioned though, one would wish there were some more hints and answers provided, at the back of the book (at least to the harder problems), so as to make the text more helpful for those readers who use it for self-study. Also a revie...
Prentice Hall :: Mathematics & Algebra & General :: Topology - General :: Topology :: Science&Mathematics :: Mathematics :: Algebra - General :: James Munkres :: :: Topology (2nd Edition)