The textbook literature on ordered sets is still rather limited. A lot of the material presented in this book is published for the first time in a textbook.

Order theory works with combinatorial and set-theoretical methods, depending on whether the sets under consideration are finite or infinite. In this book the set-theoretical parts prevail. The book treats in detail lexicographic products and their connections with universally ordered sets, and also provides thorough investigations on the structure of power sets. Other topics dealt with include dimension theory of ordered sets, well-quasi-ordered sets, trees, combinatorial set theory for ordered sets, comparison of order types, and comparability graphs.