The present book is not intended as a first approach to the matter. This book treats:
- spectral theory of Banach *-algebras,
- basic representation theory of normed *-algebras,
- spectral theory of representations of commutative *-algebras.
A feature of the book is the construction of the enveloping C*-algebra of a general normed *-algebra. Stripped of the usual assumptions of presence of an approximate identity, completeness, and continuity of the involution. The 8th edition sports a new part on
- representations on separable Hilbert spaces and slightly beyond.