Customer Reviews

Topologie algebrique et theorie des faisceaux (Actualites scientifiques et industrielles) (French Edition)

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This long-time out-of-print French book is one of a kind:
it manages to, at the same time:

- Be an acclaimed reference in sheaf theory for
more than 40 years in most areas where it is used
(algebraic topolgy, several complex variables, algebraic
geometry);
- Teach sheaf theory supposing you don't know
a single shred of algebraic topology (in fact, it presents
all the "hard" background in the first chapter);
- Teach all the homological algebra you'll ever
need, up to spectral sequences, in a little more than
100 pages (the rest of the book is about sheaf theory
itself).

It assumes you're familiar with the basics of algebra
(groups, rings, modules, homomorphisms) and point-set
topology. Godement wrote this book with the non-specialist
in mind (as a matter of fact, Godement himself was an
analyst, not and algebraic topologist), but some of the
results contained within it are very original -
the frequent use of the so-called flasque resolutions,
discovered by Godement, simplifies many demonstrations
in homological algebra and sheaf theory, although
they are not used very often nowadays.

All things considered, I believe that this title should
be seriously considered to being reprinted, and even
translated to English, in order that younger generations of mathematicians and physicists (myself included) can apreciate
how a rather difficult topic should be teached.