Essential Topology

Taking a direct route, "Essential Topology" brings the most important aspects of modern topology within reach of a second-year undergraduate student. It begins with a discussion of continuity and, by way of many examples, leads to the celebrated "Hairy Ball theorem" and on to homotopy and homology: the cornerstones of contemporary algebraic topology. While containing all the key results of basic topology, Essential Topology never allows itself to get mired in details. Instead, the focus througho