There is no one best way for an undergraduate student to learn elementary algebra. Some kinds of presentations will please some learners and will disenchant others. This text presents elementary algebra organized accord- ing to some principles of universal algebra. Many students find such a presentation of algebra appealing and easier to comprehend. The approach emphasizes the similarities and common concepts of the many algebraic structures. Such an approach to learning algebra must necessarily have its formal aspects, but we have tried in this presentation not to make abstraction a goal in...