No label defined (Q4650329)

This lively written text focuses on certain aspects of the (neo-)classical theory of Banach spaces as developed in the 1950s and 1960s and is intended as an introduction to the subject, e.g., for future Ph.D. students. Three major topics are covered: Schauder bases (existence of basic sequences, Bessaga-Pełczyń\-ski selection principle, shrinking and boundedly complete bases; duality; special features of \(c_0\), \(\ell_1\), \(\ell_\infty\), etc.); \(L_p\)-spaces (uniform convexity; Kadets-Pełczyński theorem, weak compactness in \(L_1\), unconditional convergence in \(L_p\), possible and impossible embeddings of \(\ell_r\) into \(L_p\), etc.); \(C(K)\)-spaces (Dunford-Pettis property, universality of \(C[0,1]\), extremally disconnected spaces, Garling's proof of the Riesz representation theorem, etc.). Each of the 16~chapters is accompanied by a short ``Notes and Remarks'' section giving historical notes, additional results and suggestions for further reading. There are also exercises for each chapter. This slim book is indeed very well suited to serve as an introduction to Banach spaces. Readers who have mastered it are well prepared to study more advanced texts such as \textit{P.~Wojtaszczyk}'s ``Banach Spaces For Analysts'' [Cambridge University Press, second edition (1996; Zbl 0858.46002)] or research papers.