A primer of simple theories

Abstract: "We present a self-contained exposition of the basic aspects of simple theories while developing the fundamentals of forking calculus. We expound most of the deeper aspects of S. Shelah's 1980 paper Simple unstable theories. The concept of weak dividing has been replaced with that of forking. The exposition is from a contemporary perspective and takes into account contributions due to E. Hrushovski, B. Kim, and A. Pillay."