Thistextbookisdesignedtointroduceadvancedundergraduateorbeginninggraduatestudentstoalgebraictopologyaspainlesslyaspossible.Theprincipaltopicstreatedare2-dimensionalmanifolds,thefundamentalgroup,andcoveringspaces,plusthegrouptheoryneededinthesetopics.Theonlyprerequisitesaresomegrouptheory,suchasthatnormallycontainedinanundergraduatealgebracourseonthejunior-seniorlevel,andaone-semesterundergraduatecourseingeneraltopology.
Thetopicsdiscussedinthisbookare"standard"inthesensethatseveralwell-knowntextbooksandtreatisesdevoteafewsectionsorachaptertothem.This,Ibelieve,isthefirsttextbookgivingastraightforwardtreatmentofthesetopics,strippedofallunnecessarydefinitions,terminology,etc.,andwithnumerousexamplesandexercises,thusmakingthemintelligibletoadvancedundergraduatestudents.