This is the second volume in a series devoted to the presentation of a reorganized and simplified proof of the classification of the finite simple groups. This volume provides concise and readable access to the key ideas and theorems underlying the study of finite simple groups and their important subgroups. Sections give detailed treatments of important subgroups, including some results not available until now or available only in journal literature. This book would be a valuable companion text for a graduate group theory course.

Thisseries is devoted to the publication of monographs, lecture resp. seminar notes, and other materials arising from programs of the OSU Mathemaical Research Institute. This includes proceedings of conferences or workshops held at the Institute, and other mathematical writings.

The classification of finite simple groups is a landmark result of modern mathematics. The multipart series of monographs which is being published by the AMS (Volume 40.1-40.7 and future volumes) represents the culmination of a century-long project involving the efforts of scores of mathematicians published in hundreds of journal articles, books, and doctoral theses, totaling an estimated 15,000 pages. This part 7 of the series is the middle of a trilogy (Volume 40.5, Volume 40.7, and forthcoming Volume 40.8) treating the Generic Case, i.e., the identification of the alternating groups of...