This book provides a gentle introduction to this popular subject. Assuming a background of a first course in abstract algebra, the book covers rings, ideals, quotients and homomorphisms, introduces polynomials, field extensions and splitting fields, gives a description of finite fields, and includes a brief account of the use of such fields in coding theory. It provides a readable, "student-friendly" introduction that takes a more "natural" approach to its subject (compared to the more formal introductions by Stewart and Garling), and that features clear explanations and plenty of worked examples and exercises - with full solutions – to encourage independent study.