Beginning Functional Analysis

The unifying approach of functional analysis is to view functions as points in some abstract vector space and the differential and integral operators as linear transformations on these spaces. It has been the author's goal to present the basics of functional analysis in a way that makes them comprehensible to a student who has completed first courses in linear algebra and real analysis, and to develop the topics in their historical context. Bits of pertinent history are scattered throughout the text; in addition, an appendix contains brief biographies of some of the central players in the development of functional analysis.