text: This book is a standard one for graduate-level algebra courses.  I practically wore mine out over a year-long course, and came to know it intimately.  Dummit and Foote is a book that teaches via wordy explanations and lots of examples.  Of course, examples are very important.  However, the explanations are often muddled and not clear (e.g. see tensor products).  They frequently relegate important theorems or definitions to the exercises, and the organization is poor.  Consequently, it can be very hard to find things later when you might need them.  Also, the bindings on this book frequently fail.  My book fell apart very quickly, and I know other students who had the same problem.  I recommend Rotman's Advanced Modern Algebra instead of Dummit and Foote.
  