This work is a sequel to the author's Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems, though it can be read independently by anyone familiar with Gödel's incompleteness theorem for Peano arithmetic. The book deals mainly with those aspects of recursion theory that have applications to the metamathematics of incompleteness, undecidability, and related topics. It is both an introduction to the theory and a presentation of new results in the field.

Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. This volume, the second publication in the Perspectives in Logic series, is an almost self-contained introduction to higher recursion theory, in which the reader is only assumed to know the basics of classical recursion theory. The book is divided into four parts: hyperarithmetic sets, metarecursion, α-recursion, and E-recursion. This text is essential reading for all researchers in the field.