Threshold Resummation and the Total Cross Section for Top Quark Production

We discuss the motivation for resummation of the effects of initial-state soft-gluon radiation, to all orders in the strong coupling strength, for processes in which the near-threshold region in the partonic subenergy is important. We summarize our calculation of the total cross section for top quark production at hadron colliders. Comments are included on the differences between our treatment of subleading logarithmic terms and other methods.