Lawrence E. Spence holds a BA from Towson State College and MS and PhD degrees in mathematics from Michigan State University. He served as a faculty member at Illinois State University for 34 years, where he was recognized as the outstanding teacher in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1987. He is an author or co-author of 9 college mathematics textbooks, as well as articles in mathematics journals in the areas of discrete mathematics and linear algebra.
This is my first abstract algebra book and was good for self study. I had to start looking up videos when I got to the first isomorphism theorem but only because it's one of those things where you just need to see it multiple times in different ways to get it. No linear algebra is required but helps as the last section is on coding messages.