The study of the symmetric groups forms one of the basic building blocks of modern group theory. This book is the first completely detailed and self-contained presentation of the wealth of information now known on the projective representations of the symmetric and alternating groups. Prerequisites are a basic familiarity with the elementary theory of linear representations and a modest background in modern algebra. The authors have taken pains to ensure that all the relevant algebraic and combinatoric tools are clearly explained in such a way as to make the book suitable for graduate...