American society is always shifting between self-indulgent contentment and self-critical activism. Anyone graphing the interplay of these polar forces would surely place the years 1966 and 1967 as a time when unease was on the rise. The sixties had made their belated debut and earnest people, among whom graduate students always stand at the forefront, were beginning to sense that the era called for them to be engaged and, as they said, "relevant." Relevant to what? The word no longer required a prepositional phrase following. Everyone knew that relevance meant contemporary politics, Vietnam, social and generational issues, and changing values. Deeds would soon count more than words. But for now, ideas were still held to be important, at least in the most junior ranks of the academic world. Among these, ideas arising from the social sciences, especially sociology and political science, exercised the greatest influence.