I am a math teacher (teaching lower-level math at a university) who is reviewing abstract algebra after 20 years of not thinking much about it. I have amassed quite a number of abstract algebra books over the past few months and have been jumping around between them as I work through this stuff. I have decided to review several of them. So here's what I think of this one:<br><br>I suppose this is about as good as it gets for what's available. It's one of my favorites so far. I think the text and meat of the book is quite well done. Pinter explains the concepts very well, although more worked out examples would be even better.<br><br>However, I'm not at all a fan of the form he used for the exercises, thus the deducted star. I really don't like the way Pinter sort of buries half the material within the exercises. As well as he explains things, he should have just put all the important concepts and material in the chapter presentations. Yes, that would have reduced the brevity of the chapters, but it would have been much clearer and more convenient. Also, there just aren't enough problems of all difficulty levels. What's there is fine, but there needs to be way more of them.<br><br>Also, as I've griped elsewhere, for Pete's sakes, put the solutions in the back of the book already! It's not supposed to be some kind of secret. The idea is, student thinks about problem, student does problem, student checks answer immediately, student either moves on after gaining command, or repeats as many times as needed until he/she has it. Let's bag the games and ivory tower elitism. A math course is not some kind of competition. It's a place to learn mathematics. Secrecy is not an efficient mode of learning. Neither is wandering through a lost forest. Okay... enough! Off the soapbox.<br><br>Anyway, decent book. Worth having, especially considering the price.