Complexes and Manifolds

The Mathematical Works of J. H. C. Whitehead, Volume 2: Complexes and Manifolds contains papers that are related in some way to the classification problem for manifolds, especially the Poincare conjecture, but towards the end one sees the gradual transition in the direction of algebraic topology. This volume includes all Whitehead''s published work up to the year 1941, as well as a few later papers. The book begins with a list of Whitehead''s works, in chronological order of writing. This is followed by separate chapters on topics such as analytical complexes; duality and intersection chains in combinatorial analysis situs; three-dimensional manifolds; doubled knots; certain sets of elements in a free group; certain invariants introduced by Reidemeister; and the asphericity of regions in a 3-sphere. Also included are chapters on the homotopy type of manifolds; the incidence matrices, nuclei and homotopy types; vector fields on the n-sphere; and operators in relative homotopy groups.