This manuscript is a detailed presentation of the ten lectures given by the author at the NSF Regional Conference on Three-Manifold Topology, held October 1977, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The purpose of the conference was to present the current state of affairs in three-manifold topology and to integrate the classical results with the many recent advances and new directions.

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"Interesting and useful to both the expert and the nonexpert in the field ... An important contribution to the theory."

-- Mathematical Reviews

Table of Contents

• Loop theorem-sphere theorem: The Tower Construction
• Connected sums
• 2-manifolds embedded in 3-manifolds
• Hierarchies
• Three-manifold groups
• Seifert fibered manifolds
• Peripheral structure
• Essential homotopies (the annulus-torus theorems)
• Characteristic Seifert pairs
• Deforming homotopy equivalences
• Bibliography
• Index