This text focuses on developing an intimate acquaintance with the geometric meaning of curvature and thereby introduces and demonstrates all the main technical tools needed for a more advanced course on Riemannian manifolds. It covers proving the four most fundamental theorems relating curvature and topology: the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem, the Cartan-Hadamard Theorem, Bonnet's Theorem, and a special case of the Cartan-Ambrose-Hicks Theorem.

John "Jack" M. Lee is a professor of mathematics at the University of Washington. Professor Lee is the author of three highly acclaimed Springer graduate textbooks: Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, (GTM 218) Introduction to Topological Manifolds (GTM 202), and Riemannian Manifolds (GTM 176). Lee's research interests include differential geometry, the Yamabe problem, existence of Einstein metrics, the constraint equations in general relativity, geometry and analysis on CR manifolds.