This advanced undergraduate-level text was recommended for teacher education by The American Mathematical Monthly and praised as a "most readable book." An ideal introduction to groups and Galois theory, it provides students with an appreciation of abstraction and arbitrary postulational systems, ideas that are central to automation. The authors take the algebraic equation and the discovery of the insolubility of the quintic as their theme. Starting with treatments of groups, rings, fields, and polynomials, they advance to Galois theory, radicals and roots of unity, and solution by radicals. Thirteen appendixes supplement this volume, along with numerous examples, illustrations, commentaries, and exercises. Students who have completed a first-year college course in algebra or calculus will find it an accessible and well-written treatment. About the Author: John E. Maxfield was the Dean of the Graduate School and University Research at Louisiana Tech University.Margaret W. Maxfield was a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Louisiana Technical University.