General Topology (Dover Books on Mathematics) [Paperback]

Stephen Willard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0486434796 | ISBN-13: 978-0486434797

Among the best available reference introductions to general topology, this volume  encompasses two broad areas of topology: "continuous topology," represented by sections on convergence, compactness, metrization and complete metric spaces, uniform spaces, and function spaces; and "geometric topology," covered by 9 sections on connectivity properties, topological characterization theorems, and homotopy theory. Includes 340 exercises. 1970 edition. 27 figures.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (February 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486434796
• ISBN-13: 978-0486434797
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willard's General Topology - a must for every bookshelf, March 25, 2000

By 

Sheffielder - See all my reviews

This review is from: General Topology (Hardcover)

One of the purest and most intellectually challenging branches of modern mathematics, general topology is not a subject for the faint hearted. So it was a pleasure when I first encountered one of the best reference introductions to the subject to have seen the light of day. Willard's book remains one of my all-time favourites. It covers everything the aspiring topologist needs to know, and certainly supplies more than enough information for a potential PhD student to choose their initial area of specialisation. The chapters are split intelligently into sub-topics which move at a sensible pace from its introductory notes on essential set theory, through subspaces, products, compactness, separation and countability axioms, compactifications, and function spaces. Many of the "standard spaces" of general topology are introduced and examined in the large number of related problems accompanying each section. And for those wanting a bit more context than a maths book normally provides there's a detailed collection of historical notes for each chapter.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, February 14, 2008

By 

Johan Nystrom "Yohan" (Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: General Topology (Dover Books on Mathematics) (Paperback)

First a caveate: This book may not be the most suitable for everyone that takes a FIRST course on General Topology unless he or she is prepared to put in quite a lot of work. This is because the book contains so much information in relatively few pages that the material is necessarily quite dense. Even so the book is a good purchase because it's cheap and will serve everyone good later as a reference.

The organization of the book: Everything is presented in a perfectly logical order, beginning with a summary of Set Theory and ending with topologies on Function Spaces. During the course the reader is invited to make excursions to other areas of mathematics from a topological point of view and perhaps gain insights into those fields that even specialists don't have. This is mostly done through problems for the reader to solve.

Definitions and Theorems: The definitions are always the most general possible, often presented as a set of axioms that the defined quantity has to fulfill. The theorems are almost always presented in their most general form.

The Proofs: The proofs are generally on either the shortest and most elegant form possible, or taken from the original publications. This is for the benefit of the reader even though it might appear to some readers as "terse" proofs because this kind of proofs is the one that gains the reader the most insight once they are understood. "Short and elegant" does NOT mean that the author leaves out details (unless they are explicitely assigned as problems).

Explanations and Motivations: The text is short and to the point. This again does not mean that the author leaves out anything relevant or that he does not warn for possible pitfalls.

Examples of introduced concepts and definitions: There are numerous well chosen examples, often nontrivial, to illustrate the meaning of introduced concepts.

The problem set: The set of problems is just fantastic. The problems are numerous, diverse, illustrative, and again, sometimes HIGHLY nontrivial. Don't be too scared though, because the author provides very accurate hints of how to approach the more difficult ones.

Bibliography, Historical Remarks and Index: One just has to admire the amount of work the author has put into this.

Miscellaneous: As mentioned, the material is (necessarily) condensed, but the text is never "dry" or boring. There is an undertone of humour in quite a few places. For instance, when the author mentions that not every regular space is completely regular, because there exists a formidable example that shows this fact, he relegates that example to problem 18G "where most people won't be bothered with it". This practically guarantees that most people WILL be bothered by it by looking up 18.G. There, in 18G, he provides som many hints that it is actually doable for most people to reconstruct this formidable (i.e. difficult) example.

On the Downside: There are no solved problems, and the author does not teach the reader on HOW to solve problems. This is however compensated for by the numerous hints in the problem set and through the methods of thaught one learns from reading and understanding the proofs. Also, in topology, one basically has to invent ones own mothod to solve an unsolved problem. There is no canonical way of doing things!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars goldmine of information; this is hidden treasure, July 28, 2005

By 

another reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: General Topology (Dover Books on Mathematics) (Paperback)

I have yet to see Dugundji's topology text (it's always checked out at my university library) but I would still guess that this is one of the best there is. Willard's book most certainly covers all the topics that "every young analyst should know", as Kelley wrote, but I think this book outdoes Kelley's when it comes to that! It covers topics like convergence, separation & countability, compactness, connectedness, uniform spaces & a short discussion on function spaces & C* algebras at the end. Many of the theorems, proofs & examples come directly from the original source articles, or are the most general versions there is. Each section has a very detailed & interesting historical discussion at the end of the book where the author lists the original articles & the circumstances in which they were published & other stuff. Where the text really stands out though is the problem sets. As the reader goes deeper into the book of course the concepts get more complicated & proofs of extremely deep & important results are outlined as problems. These are things such as the Cantor-Bernstein theorem, Hahn-Banach theorem, Pontryagin duality theorem, stuff about realcompactness, Edwin Hewitt's construction of a regular T1 space in which every continuous function is constant(!) & many more. Don't be afraid though; the discussion in the text, hints given & notes in the back help with proving things like those. Many of the examples are also highly nontrivial & therefore very helpful (imho). To sum up, I believe this book is very underrated & deserves the recognition of the texts by Munkres & Kelley.