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This book, which can be considered as a sequel of the author's famous book Character Theory of Finite Groups, concerns the character theory of finite solvable groups and other groups that have an abundance of normal subgroups. It is subdivided into three parts: $\pi$-theory, character correspondences, and M-groups. The $\pi$-theory section contains an exposition of D. Gajendragadkar's $\pi$-special characters, and it includes various extensions, generalizations, and applications of his work. The character correspondences section proves the McKay character counting conjecture and the Alperin weight conjecture for solvable groups, and it constructs a canonical McKay bijection for odd-order groups. In addition to a review of some basic material on M-groups, the third section contains an exposition of the use of symplectic modules for studying M-groups. In particular, an accessible presentation of E. C. Dade's deep results on monomial characters of odd prime-power degree is included. Very little of this material has previously appeared in book form, and much of it is based on the author's research. By reading a clean and accessible presentation written by the leading expert in the field, researchers and graduate students will be inspired to learn and work in this area that has fascinated the author for decades.

The text begins with a review of group actions and Sylow theory. It includes semidirect products, the Schur–Zassenhaus theorem, the theory of commutators, coprime actions on groups, transfer theory, Frobenius groups, primitive and multiply transitive permutation groups, the simplicity of the PSL groups, the generalized Fitting subgroup and also Thompson's J-subgroup and his normal $p$-complement theorem. Topics that seldom (or never) appear in books are also covered. These include subnormality theory, a group-theoretic proof of Burnside's theorem about groups with order divisible by just two primes, the Wielandt automorphism tower theorem, Yoshida's transfer theorem, the “principal ideal theorem” of transfer theory and many smaller results that are not very well known. Proofs often contain original ideas, and they are given in complete detail. In many cases they are simpler than can be found elsewhere. The book is largely based on the author's lectures, and consequently, the style is friendly and somewhat informal. Finally, the book includes a large collection of problems at disparate levels of difficulty. These should enable students to practice group theory and not just read about it. Martin Isaacs is professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Over the years, he has received many teaching awards and is well known for his inspiring teaching and lecturing. He received the University of Wisconsin Distinguished Teaching Award in 1985, the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Teaching Award in 1989, and the Wisconsin Section MAA Teaching Award in 1993, to name only a few. He was also honored by being the selected MAA Pólya Lecturer in 2003–2005.

This book, based on a first-year graduate course the author taught at the University of Wisconsin, contains more than enough material for a two-semester graduate-level abstract algebra course, including groups, rings and modules, fields and Galois theory, an introduction to algebraic number theory, and the rudiments of algebraic geometry. In addition, there are some more specialized topics not usually covered in such a course. These include transfer and character theory of finite groups, modules over artinian rings, modules over Dedekind domains, and transcendental field extensions. This book could be used for self study as well as for a course text, and so full details of almost all proofs are included, with nothing being relegated to the chapter-end problems. There are, however, hundreds of problems, many being far from trivial. The book attempts to capture some of the informality of the classroom, as well as the excitement the author felt when taking the corresponding course as a student.