This book gives an excellent survey of recent work on classical groups, simplifying and unifying the results of many authors. No attempt is made to cover all of the voluminous literature on classical groups; the author deals with only that portion of the subject which can be handled by the methods of linear algebra. By thus restricting his scope, he is able to include proofs of most of the results described, thereby making the book more self-contained than most Ergebnisse tracts.
In the reviewer''s opinion, this is an important and well-written book which should help to stimulate research on the classical groups. The book not only gives a thorough exposition of the present state of the subject, but is also an excellent introduction to the modern techniques basic to further work in this field.