This volume is easily accessible to young people and mathematicians unfamiliar with logic. It gives a terse historical picture of Model Theory and introduces the latest developments in the area. It further provides 'hands-on' proofs of elimination of quantifiers, elimination of imaginaries and other relevant matters. The book is for trainees and professional model theorists, and mathematicians working in Algebra and Geometry.

We examine several conditions, either the existence of a rank or a particular property of þ-forking that suggest the existence of a well-behaved independence relation, and determine the consequences of each of these conditions towards the rosiness of the theory. In particular we show that the existence of an ordinal valued equivalence relation rank is a (necessary and) sufficient condition for rosiness.

The laws of distribution follow at once from Lyndon's interpolation theorem and the fact that the fallacy of many terms is a fallacy.