This is the first unified treatment in book form of the lower K-groups of Bass and the lower L-groups of the author.

Introduction; 1. Projective class and torsion; 2. Graded and bounded categories; 3. End invariants; 4. Excision and transversality in K-theory; 5. Isomorphism torsion; 6. Open cones; 7. K-theory of C1 (A); 8. The Laurent polynominal extension category A[z, z-1]; 9. Nilpotent class; 10. K-theory of A[z, z-1]; 11. Lower K-theory; 12. Transfer in K-theory; 13. Quadratic L-theory; 14. Excision and transversality in L-theory; 15. L-theory of C1 (A); 16. L-theory of A[z, z-1]; 17. Lower L-theory; 18. Transfer in L-theory; 19. Symmetric L-theory; 20. The algebraic fibering obstruction; References; Index.