James E. Humphreys is presently Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before this, he held the posts of Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oregon and Associate Professor of Mathematics at New York University. His main research interests include group theory and Lie algebras. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1961. He did graduate work in philosophy and mathematics at Cornell University and later received hi Ph.D. from Yale University if 1966. In 1972, Springer-Verlag published his first book, "Introduction to Lie Algebras and Representation Theory" (graduate Texts in Mathematics Vol. 9).

James E. Humphreys is presently Professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Before this, he held the posts of Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oregon and Associate Professor of Mathematics at New York University. His main research interests include group theory and Lie algebras. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1961. He did graduate work in philosophy and mathematics at Cornell University and later received hi Ph.D. from Yale University if 1966. In 1972, Springer-Verlag published his first book, "Introduction to Lie Algebras and Representation Theory" (graduate Texts in Mathematics Vol. 9).

In this graduate textbook Professor Humphreys presents a concrete and up-to-date introduction to the theory of Coxeter groups. He assumes that the reader has a good knowledge of algebra, but otherwise the book is self contained. The first part is devoted to establishing concrete examples; the author begins by developing the most important facts about finite reflection groups and related geometry, and showing that such groups have a Coxeter representation. In the next chapter these groups are classified by Coxeter diagrams, and actual realizations of these groups are discussed. Chapter 3 discusses the polynomial invariants of finite reflection groups, and the first part ends with a description of the affine Weyl groups and the way they arise in Lie theory. The second part (which is logically independent of, but motivated by, the first) starts by developing the properties of the Coxeter groups. Chapter 6 shows how earlier examples and others fit into the general classification of Coxeter diagrams. Chapter 7 is based on the very important work of Kazhdan and Lusztig and the last chapter presents a number of miscellaneous topics of a combinatorial nature.

The book provides a useful exposition of results on the structure of semisimple algebraic groups over an arbitrary algebraically closed field. After the fundamental work of Borel and Chevalley in the 1950s and 1960s, further results were obtained over the next thirty years on conjugacy classes and centralizers of elements of such groups.

Finite groups of Lie type encompass most of the finite simple groups. Their representations and characters have been studied intensively for half a century, though some key problems remain unsolved. This is the first comprehensive treatment of the representation theory of finite groups of Lie type over a field of the defining prime characteristic. As a subtheme, the relationship between ordinary and modular representations is explored, in the context of Deligne-Lusztig characters. One goal has been to make the subject more accessible to those working in neighbouring parts of group theory, number theory, and topology. Core material is treated in detail, but the later chapters emphasize informal exposition accompanied by examples and precise references.