ABSTRACT
Forty years of commutative ring theory is a broad subject, covering tens of thousands of pages of published research. Hence many restrictions have been necessary in regard to this paper. Let me mention a couple. First, we focus primarily, but not exclusively, on rings that need not be Noetherian. Second, our concentration is on core cases, and largely omits discussion of extensions/generalizations/ramifications of core problems. The paper includes a selected bibliography; where they exist, it contains references to survey sources that would provide an interested reader with additional detail.
