ABSTRACT
Sociology, a generalising science, seeks not only to understand the nature of social relationships caught in a specific time and place, but also to identify more general principles of human interaction that have applicability across a wide range of social reality. The goals of this chapter are, therefore, twofold. The first is to share with the reader some of my own experiences in attempting to study a specific societal elite, the military, and a specific elite institution, the US Military Academy at West Point. My second purpose is to work towards a more general model for viewing the problems faced by sociologists in their attempts to study largescale bureaucracies and the elites who control them.
