An Introduction to Number Theory provides an introduction to the main streams of number theory. Starting with the unique factorization property of the integers, the theme of factorization is revisited several times throughout the book to illustrate how the ideas handed down from Euclid continue to reverberate through the subject.

In particular, the book shows how the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, handed down from antiquity, informs much of the teaching of modern number theory. The result is that number theory will be understood, not as a collection of tricks and...