Galois theory is one of the most beautiful subjects in mathematics, but it is heard to appreciate this fact fully without seeing specific examples. Numerous examples are therefore included throughout the text, in the hope that they will lead to a deeper understanding and genuine appreciation of the more abstract and advanced literature on Galois theory. This book is intended for beginning graduate students who already have some background in algebra, including some elementary theory of groups, rings and fields. The expositions and proofs are intended to present Galois theory in as simple a manner as possible, sometimes at the expense of brevity. The book is for students and intends to make them take an active part in mathematics rather than merely read, nod their heads at appropriate places, skip the exercises, and continue on to the next section.

These notes describe a general procedure for calculating the Betti numbers of the projective quotient varieties that geometric invariant theory associates to reductive group actions on nonsingular complex projective varieties. These quotient varieties are interesting in particular because of their relevance to moduli problems in algebraic geometry. The author describes two different approaches to the problem. One is purely algebraic, while the other uses the methods of symplectic geometry and Morse theory, and involves extending classical Morse theory to certain degenerate functions.