TITLE: Is the algebraic number theory in Ireland and Rosen enough to study Washington's Cyclotomic Fields?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: I want to read Lawrence Washington's An Introduction to Cyclotomic Fields. However, my knowledge of algebraic number theory doesn't extend farther than what's found in A Classical Introduction to Modern Number Theory - Ireland and Rosen. Does anyone know whether this will be sufficient or whether I'll have to learn more about algebraic number theory before I can get to it?

REPLY [2 votes]: The preface to the first edition of Washington's book says:

The reader is assumed to have had at least one semester of algebraic
  number theory (though one of my students took such a course
  concurrently). In particular, the following terms should be familiar:
  Dedekind domain, class number, discriminant, units, ramification,
  local field. Occasionally one needs the fact that ramification can be
  computed locally. However, one who has a good background in algebra
  should be able to survive by talking to the local algebraic number
  theorist. I have not assumed class field theory; the basic facts are
  summarized in an appendix. For most of the book, one only needs the
  fact that the Galois group of the maximal unramified abelian extension
  is isomorphic to the ideal class group, and variants of this
  statement.

It seems you'll have to learn much more about algebraic number theory than covered by Ireland and Rosen.