This book covers both the classical and representation theoretic views of automorphic forms in a style that is accessible to graduate students entering the field. The treatment is based on complete proofs, which reveal the uniqueness principles underlying the basic constructions. The book features extensive foundational material on the representation theory of GL(1) and GL(2) over local fields, the theory of automorphic representations, L-functions and advanced topics such as the Langlands conjectures, the Weil representation, the Rankin-Selberg method and the triple L-function, and examines this subject matter from many different and complementary viewpoints. Researchers as well as students in algebra and number theory will find this a valuable guide to a notoriously difficult subject.