A comprehensive account is given of the theory of metanilpotent groups with the minimal condition on normal subgroups.
After reviewing classical material, many new results are established relating to the Fitting subgroup, the Hirsch–Plotkin radical, the Frattini subgroup, splitting and conjugacy, the Schur multiplier, Sylow structure and the maximal subgroups.
Module theoretic and homological methods are used throughout.