Prerequisites for Lang - Algebra I have studied abstract algebra on Herstein's Topics in Algebra.
Now I am interested in studying Lang's Algebra, but I do not know if it is a text too hard for my actual knowledge.
What are the prerequisites for studying it? 
 A: I "learned" algebra from Lang, but I had a lot of side references. The book covers a fair amount of material. Lang's style is concise and demands a lot from the reader. Prior experience with Herstein should help. One of my favorite references beside Lang was Hungerford's graduate algebra, which has many more examples. Dummit and Foote was not around when I was a graduate student, but I have a copy, and have referred to it often. It, too, has lots of examples, which are so important to actually learning the subject. Another favorite of mine is "Basic Abstract Algebra"  by Bhattacharya, Jain, and Nagpaul. I don't hear it mentioned much, but it has many examples and worked out exercises.
In my experience, there is no one text that gives you everything you need in algebra. It is best to find a small selection of books that work for you. Happy searching.
A: Lang's Algebra is hard to read! I started studying algebra from Lang' book, and it was confusing as I did not have so many tools at the time. So I would start with Dummit and Foote or Hungerford's. \emph{However}, Lang's book is really good, and it is true you have to work out all the details, but that is a plus. Furthermore, after reading a few chapters of Lang's you get used to this style where the author does not explain much and focus on the big picture. Anyway, I hope it helps!
