In this paper we give a characterization theorem for the reciprocal Dunford-Pettis property as defined by Grothendieck. The relationship of this property to Pelczynski's property V is examined. In particular it is shown that every Banach space with property V has the reciprocal Dunford-Pettis property and an example is given to show that the converse fails to hold. Moreover the characterizations of property V and the reciprocal Dunford-Pettis property lead to the definitions of property V* and property RDP* respectively. Me compare and contrast results for the reciprocal Dunford-Pettis property and property RDP* with those for properties V and V*. In the final chapter we use a result of Brooks to obtain a characterization for the Radon-Nikodým property.

In this dissertation we study the structure of spaces of operators, especially the space of all compact operators between two Banach spaces X and Y. Work by Kalton, Emmanuele, Bator and Lewis on the space of compact and weakly compact operators motivates much of this paper. Let L(X,Y) be the Banach space of all bounded linear operators between Banach spaces X and Y, K(X,Y) be the space of all compact operators, and W(X,Y) be the space of all weakly compact operators. We study problems related to the complementability of different operator ideals (the Banach space of all compact, weakly compact, completely continuous, resp. unconditionally converging) operators in the space of all bounded linear operators. The structure of Dunford-Pettis sets, strong Dunford-Pettis sets, and certain spaces of operators is studied in the context of the injective and projective tensor products of Banach spaces. Bibasic sequences are used to study relative norm compactness of strong Dunford-Pettis sets. Next, we use Dunford-Pettis sets to give sufficient conditions for K(X,Y) to contain c0.