Hailed by the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society as a very welcome addition to the mathematical literature, this text is appropriate for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Written by two internationally renowned mathematicians, its accessible treatment requires no previous knowledge of algebraic topology.
Starting with basic definitions of knots and knot types, the text proceeds to examinations of fundamental and free groups. A survey of the historic foundation for the notion of group presentation is followed by a careful proof of the theorem of Tietze and several examples of its use. Subsequent chapters explore the calculation of fundamental groups, the presentation of a knot group, the free calculus and the elementary ideals, and the knot polynomials and their characteristic properties. The text concludes with three helpful appendixes and a guide to the literature.