The authors present the subject of dynamical systems so that it is accessible to undergraduate and beginning graduate students in mathematics or science and engineering. The fundamental ideas of dynamics and bifurcations are explained in a mathematically insightful setting, yet devoid of extensive formalism.

Zusammenfassung
Equations in dimensions one and two constitute the majority of the text, and in particular it is demonstrated that the basic notion of stability and bifurcations of vector fields are easily explained for scalar autonomous equations.

Inhalt
I: Dimension One.- 1. Scalar Autonomous Equations.- 2. Elementary Bifurcations.- 3. Scalar Maps.- II: Dimension One and One Half.- 4. Scalar Nonautonomous Equations.- 5. Bifurcation of Periodic Equations.- 6. On Tori and Circles.- III: Dimension Two.- 7. Planar Autonomous Systems.- 8. Linear Systems.- 9. Near Equilibria.- 10. In the Presence of a Zero Eigenvalue.- 11. In the Presence of Purely Imaginary Eigenvalues.- 12. Periodic Orbits.- 13. All Planar Things Considered.- 14- Conservative and Gradient Systems.- 15. Planar Maps.- IV: Higher Dimensions.- 16. Dimension Two and One Half.- 17. Dimension Three.- 18. Dimension Four.- Farewell.- APPENDIX: A Catalogue of Fundamental Theorems.- References.