This is a beginner-level text in linear algebra and its applications that provides a lot of handholding and is full of worked examples. The stated prerequisites are two years of high-school algebra, and I think this is accurate; the book is aimed very low. It is a 2013 unaltered reprint of the 1978 Worth Publishing edition.
Roughly the first 150 pages are an introduction to linear algebra, in the traditional sense of linear equations, matrices, and determinants. Most of the rest of the book deals with methods and applications of linear programming, including a chapter on game theory and a chapter on the transportation problem (for which it covers streamlined methods such as then northwest corner method and the stepping stone method). There’s also a chapter on probability and counting, which may seem out of place but is used to introduce Markov processes.
The main weakness of the book is that there is no coverage of computers. There’s quite a lot of drill, but of a sort we today would expect the student to do on a computer.
Bottom line: A good, traditional, and concrete treatment, although for a course that probably doesn’t exist any more.
Allen Stenger is a math hobbyist and retired software developer. He is webmaster and newsletter editor for the MAA Southwestern Section and is an editor of the Missouri Journal of Mathematical Sciences. His mathematical interests are number theory and classical analysis. He volunteers in his spare time at MathNerds.org, a math help site that fosters inquiry learning.