This paper may be viewed as having two aims. First, we continue our study of algebras of operators on a Hilbert space which have a contractive approximate identity, this time from a more Banach-algebraic point of view. Namely, we mainly investigate topics concerned with the ideal structure, and hereditary subalgebras (or HSA's, which are in some sense a generalization of ideals). Second, we study properties of operator algebras which are hereditary subalgebras in their bidual, or equivalently which...