The study of groups equipped with a compatible lattice order ("lattice-ordered groups" or "I!-groups") has arisen in a number of different contexts. Examples of this include the study of ideals and divisibility, dating back to the work of Dedekind and continued by Krull; the pioneering work of Hahn on totally ordered abelian groups; and the work of Kantorovich and other analysts on partially ordered function spaces. After the Second World War, the theory of lattice-ordered groups became a subject of study in its own right, following the publication of fundamental papers by Birkhoff, Nakano and Lorenzen. The theory blossomed under the leadership of Paul Conrad, whose important papers in the 1960s provided the tools for describing the structure for many classes of I!-groups in terms of their convex I!-subgroups. A particularly significant success of this approach was the generalization of Hahn's embedding theorem to the case of abelian lattice-ordered groups, work done with his students John Harvey and Charles Holland. The results of this period are summarized in Conrad's "blue notes" [C].

A partially ordered group is an algebraic object having the structure of a group and the structure of a partially ordered set which are connected in some natural way. These connections were established in the period between the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century. It was realized that ordered algebraic systems occur in various branches of mathemat ics bound up with its fundamentals. For example, the classification of infinitesimals resulted in discovery of non-archimedean ordered al gebraic systems, the formalization of the notion of real number led to the definition of ordered groups and ordered fields, the construc tion of non-archimedean geometries brought about the investigation of non-archimedean ordered groups and fields. The theory of partially ordered groups was developed by: R. Dedekind, a. Holder, D. Gilbert, B. Neumann, A. I. Mal'cev, P. Hall, G. Birkhoff. These connections between partial order and group operations allow us to investigate the properties of partially ordered groups. For exam ple, partially ordered groups with interpolation property were intro duced in F. Riesz's fundamental paper [1] as a key to his investigations of partially ordered real vector spaces, and the study of ordered vector spaces with interpolation properties were continued by many functional analysts since. The deepest and most developed part of the theory of partially ordered groups is the theory of lattice-ordered groups. In the 40s, following the publications of the works by G. Birkhoff, H. Nakano and P.

A lattice-ordered group is a mathematical structure combining a (partial) order (lattice) structure and a group structure (on a set) in a compatible way. Thus it is a composite structure, or, a set carrying two or more simple structures in a compatible way. The field of lattice-ordered groups turn up on a wide range of mathematical fields ranging from functional analysis to universal algebra. These papers address various aspects of the field, with wide applicability for interested researchers.

Recently the theory of partially ordered groups has been used by analysts, algebraists, topologists and model theorists. This book presents the most important results and topics in the theory with proofs that rely on (and interplay with) other areas of mathematics. It concludes with a list of some unsolved problems for the reader to tackle. In stressing both the special techniques of the discipline and the overlap with other areas of pure mathematics, the book should be of interest to a wide audience in diverse areas of mathematics.

Provides a thorough discussion of the orderability of a group. The book details the major developments in the theory of lattice-ordered groups, delineating standard approaches to structural and permutation representations. A radically new presentation of the theory of varieties of lattice-ordered groups is offered.;This work is intended for pure and applied mathematicians and algebraists interested in topics such as group, order, number and lattice theory, universal algebra, and representation theory; and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.;College or university bookstores may order five or more copies at a special student price which is available from Marcel Dekker Inc, upon request.

"The text can serve as an introduction to fundamentals in the respective areas from a residuated-maps perspective and with an eye on coordinatization. The historical notes that are interspersed are also worth mentioning....The exposition is thorough and all proofs that the reviewer checked were highly polished....Overall, the book is a well-done introduction from a distinct point of view and with exposure to the author’s research expertise." --MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS