ABSTRACT
By now readers have had many opportunities to draw their own con clusions about the cogency and implications of the book's arguments and data. In this final section I review analytically the propositions offered here, stress those I consider most pertinent to the main themes, and suggest some possible consequences of this work for the study of society and the management of social affairs. I have deliberately refrained from calling this section a 'Conclusion' or 'Conclusions'. I t would be simply too optimistic to imply that a quod erat demonstrandum happy ending can follow a book in sociological-bio logical theory. None the less i t remains my responsibility to generalize about the general, having done so about the specific, and to round out the argument by indicating where i t might proceed from here.
