  I present an introduction to the field of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) with
emphasis on nucleon spin structure and perturbative methods. After a somewhat
comprehensive overview of perturbative QCD, including the systematics of
renormalization, I introduce deeply-inelastic scattering and deeply-virtual
Compton scattering along with the nonperturbative distribution functions
appearing in these processes. I show how these processes can be used to extract
the distribution of longitudinal spin of nucleons, and briefly discuss the
complications associated with transverse spin components.
  There are five appendices which accompany this work, discussing topics
ranging from canonical field quantization to dimensional regularization to the
structure of several important Lie groups. These appendices are meant to give
the reader a certain basic understanding of some of the mathematical details
underlying the main text, as well as provide a useful reference.
  This work was submitted in a slightly different form to the University of
Maryland at College Park in partial completion of the requirements for a doctor
of philosophy in physics, received August 2000.
