This book grew out of courses which I taught at Cornell University and the University of Warwick during 1969 and 1970. I wrote it because of a strong belief that there should be readily available a semi-historical and geo metrically motivated exposition of J. H. C. Whitehead's beautiful theory of simple-homotopy types; that the best way to understand this theory is to know how and why it was built. This belief is buttressed by the fact that the major uses of, and advances in, the theory in recent times-for example, the s-cobordism theorem (discussed in §25), the use of the theory in surgery, its extension to non-compact complexes (discussed at the end of §6) and the proof of topological invariance (given in the Appendix)-have come from just such an understanding. A second reason for writing the book is pedagogical. This is an excellent subject for a topology student to "grow up" on. The interplay between geometry and algebra in topology, each enriching the other, is beautifully illustrated in simple-homotopy theory. The subject is accessible (as in the courses mentioned at the outset) to students who have had a good one semester course in algebraic topology. I have tried to write proofs which meet the needs of such students. (When a proof was omitted and left as an exercise, it was done with the welfare of the student in mind. He should do such exercises zealously.

This is a book in pure mathematics dealing with homotopy theory, one of the main branches of algebraic topology. The principal topics are as follows: Basic Homotopy; H-spaces and co-H-spaces; fibrations and cofibrations; exact sequences of homotopy sets, actions, and coactions; homotopy pushouts and pullbacks; classical theorems, including those of Serre, Hurewicz, Blakers-Massey, and Whitehead; homotopy Sets; homotopy and homology decompositions of spaces and maps; and obstruction theory. The underlying theme of the entire book is the Eckmann-Hilton duality theory. The book can be used as a text for the second semester of an advanced ungraduate or graduate algebraic topology course.

This book develops abstract homotopy theory from the categorical perspective with a particular focus on examples. Part I discusses two competing perspectives by which one typically first encounters homotopy (co)limits: either as derived functors definable when the appropriate diagram categories admit a compatible model structure, or through particular formulae that give the right notion in certain examples. Emily Riehl unifies these seemingly rival perspectives and demonstrates that model structures on diagram categories are irrelevant. Homotopy (co)limits are explained to be a special case of weighted (co)limits, a foundational topic in enriched category theory. In Part II, Riehl further examines this topic, separating categorical arguments from homotopical ones. Part III treats the most ubiquitous axiomatic framework for homotopy theory - Quillen's model categories. Here, Riehl simplifies familiar model categorical lemmas and definitions by focusing on weak factorization systems. Part IV introduces quasi-categories and homotopy coherence.

Since the beginning of the modern era of algebraic topology, simplicial methods have been used systematically and effectively for both computation and basic theory. With the development of Quillen's concept of a closed model category and, in particular, a simplicial model category, this collection of methods has become the primary way to describe non-abelian homological algebra and to address homotopy-theoretical issues in a variety of fields, including algebraic K-theory. This book supplies a modern exposition of these ideas, emphasizing model category theoretical techniques. Discussed here are the homotopy theory of simplicial sets, and other basic topics such as simplicial groups, Postnikov towers, and bisimplicial sets. The more advanced material includes homotopy limits and colimits, localization with respect to a map and with respect to a homology theory, cosimplicial spaces, and homotopy coherence. Interspersed throughout are many results and ideas well-known to experts, but uncollected in the literature. Intended for second-year graduate students and beyond, this book introduces many of the basic tools of modern homotopy theory. An extensive background in topology is not assumed.

The core of classical homotopy theory is a body of ideas and theorems that emerged in the 1950s and was later largely codified in the notion of a model category. This core includes the notions of fibration and cofibration; CW complexes; long fiber and cofiber sequences; loop spaces and suspensions; and so on. Brown's representability theorems show that homology and cohomology are also contained in classical homotopy theory. This text develops classical homotopy theory from a modern point of view, meaning that the exposition is informed by the theory of model categories and that homotopy limits and colimits play central roles. The exposition is guided by the principle that it is generally preferable to prove topological results using topology (rather than algebra). The language and basic theory of homotopy limits and colimits make it possible to penetrate deep into the subject with just the rudiments of algebra. The text does reach advanced territory, including the Steenrod algebra, Bott periodicity, localization, the Exponent Theorem of Cohen, Moore, and Neisendorfer, and Miller's Theorem on the Sullivan Conjecture. Thus the reader is given the tools needed to understand and participate in research at (part of) the current frontier of homotopy theory. Proofs are not provided outright. Rather, they are presented in the form of directed problem sets. To the expert, these read as terse proofs; to novices they are challenges that draw them in and help them to thoroughly understand the arguments.

As the title suggests, this book is concerned with the elementary portion of the subject of homotopy theory. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the fundamental group and with singular homology theory, including the Universal Coefficient and Kiinneth Theorems. Some acquaintance with manifolds and Poincare duality is desirable, but not essential. Anyone who has taught a course in algebraic topology is familiar with the fact that a formidable amount of technical machinery must be introduced and mastered before the simplest applications can be made. This phenomenon is also observable in the more advanced parts of the subject. I have attempted to short-circuit it by making maximal use of elementary methods. This approach entails a leisurely exposition in which brevity and perhaps elegance are sacrificed in favor of concreteness and ease of application. It is my hope that this approach will make homotopy theory accessible to workers in a wide range of other subjects-subjects in which its impact is beginning to be felt. It is a consequence of this approach that the order of development is to a certain extent historical. Indeed, if the order in which the results presented here does not strictly correspond to that in which they were discovered, it nevertheless does correspond to an order in which they might have been discovered had those of us who were working in the area been a little more perspicacious.