As the title promises, this helpful volume offers easy access to the abstract principles common to science and mathematics. It eschews technical terms and omits troublesome details in favor of straightforward explanations that will allow scientists to read papers in branches of science other than their own, mathematicians to appreciate papers on topics on which they have no specialized knowledge, and other readers to cultivate an improved understanding of subjects employing mathematical principles. The broad scope of topics encompasses Euclid’s algorithm; congruences; polynomials; complex numbers and algebraic fields; algebraic integers, ideals, and p-adic numbers; groups; the Galois theory of equations; algebraic geometry; matrices and determinants; invariants and tensors; algebras; group algebras; and more.
"It is refreshing to find a book which deals briefly but competently with a variety of concatenated algebraic topics, that is not written for the specialist," enthused the Journal of the Institute of ActuariesStudents’ Society about this volume, adding "Littlewood’s book can be unreservedly recommended."

Reprint of the Harper & Brothers, New York, 1960 edition.