Hatcher on Algebraic Topology
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005Allen Hatcher of Cornell appears to be undertaking the quixotic goal of writing accessible “introductory” textbooks for the entirety of Algebraic Topology. The first volume is already the definitive introductory work in the subject, covering the Fundamental Group, Homology, Cohomology, and Homotopy and is available online.
The style is geometric, so those whose nascent views on Algebraic Topology are functorial may be better served by Rotman’s book, but it is hard to recommend highly enough since Hatcher is an excellent expositor, and the book is clearly written for students rather than a vanity piece aimed at colleagues, a major pet peeve of mine.