The seminal `MIT notes' of Dennis Sullivan were issued in June 1970 and were widely circulated at the time, but only privately. The notes had a major influence on the development of both algebraic and geometric topology, pioneering the localization and completion of spaces in homotopy theory, including P-local, profinite and rational homotopy theory, the Galois action on smooth manifold structures in profinite homotopy theory, and the K-theory orientation of PL manifolds and bundles. This is the first time that this major work has actually been published, and made available to anyone interested in topology.