This book represents an outgrowth of the author's lectures at the University of California. The text is intended as a textbook for a one-semester course in basic ring theory. The material covered includes topics ranging from the Wedderburn-Artin theory of semisimple rings to Jacobson's theory of the radical, representation theory of groups and algebras. By aiming the level of writing at the novice rather than the connoisseur and by stressing the role of examples and motivation, the author has produced a text that is suitable not only for use in a graduate course, but also for self- study. More than 400 exercises, which test the understanding of the general theory, are included in this new edition.