As a mathematics student completing my second semester of an undergraduate abstract algebra sequence, my greatest lament is that the abstract algebra courses which I enrolled in used books which weren't completely satisfying. For group theory, we used Gallian's&nbsp;
  
Contemporary Abstract Algebra







  
  
    , which isn't bad, but has significant room for improvement. For rings and fields, we used Herstein's&nbsp;
  
Topics in Algebra







  
  
    , which probably wasn't bad when it was written 40 years ago, but is far too sparse on details, uses outdated or completely nonstandard notation, and contains six over-bloated (one entire chapter for ALL of group theory) and highly disorganized chapters. It wasn't until about midway through the semester on rings and fields that I discovered Pinter's text, and upon discovering it, I feel that I have found one of the nicest texts to use as a solid introduction to abstract algebra. Pinter doesn't skimp on any of the details, and not only fully explains everything, but is capable of explaining everything in a manner which is actually "easy" to understand, and dare I say, even enjoyable to read. But just because he explains it in a way that is "easy" to understand doesn't mean that the concepts themselves are easy. But with the way Pinter explains it, the concepts seem very natural.<br><br>If I had to choose one thing that I like about Pinter's textbook, it would be the exercises which are provided at the end of each chapter. Just about every textbook out there has a highly disorganized hodgepodge of exercises, occasionally organized into categories like "concepts" and "theory" or marked with an asterisk for being more "difficult." Pinter takes an entirely different approach to the organization of exercises, by grouping related exercises under headings which summarize a group of them. This helps to develop even more theory than just what the book provides, without simply relegating important ideas to randomly numbered exercises which may be lost in a large set. It also helps students use a series of smaller proofs to establish important theorems rather than the approach that some others texts use, where they state a very important and sometimes "loaded" theorem and say that the "proof is left to the reader." There are also plenty of more basic conceptual exercises to build up to the theory. While some mathematical purists may snark at conceptual exercises, it is important to realize that understanding exactly what is going on at the most basic level, before delving into proofs, is very crucial. Certainly, theory and proofs are one of the most important things for a student to learn from an abstract algebra course, but how well can a student possibly prove properties of a coset if they can't even develop basic properties and examples of cosets? These exercises are also useful in preparation for exams, such as the GRE Mathematics Subject test... a multiple choice test that many undergrads going into grad school take which covers many topics, including abstract algebra.<br><br>In a way, it is a shame that this has transitioned to a Dover text, as many professionals don't take Dover texts as seriously as texts from the "pushy" publishers cranking out the most up-to-date (or at least updating the cover, renumbering exercises to throw off students, and enhancing books with useless links to websites) books at 10 times the price. But this one is one that should be taken seriously, and even though it is just a reprint of a 20 year old text, it still has plenty of life in it for the time being. At the same time, though, it is nice that such a high quality text is being made available at such a low price, and even if professors aren't necessarily going to jump on the bandwagon to use this text in their courses, I think students of abstract algebra, particularly those who may be interested in eventually engaging in research in the area, will find this text to make a great supplement to some of the "problematic" texts out there. This text is also great for self-study as well.