For the past decade, transaction, and now Society, has dedicated itself to the task of reporting the strains and conflicts within the American system. The work done in the magazine has crossed disciplinary boundaries. This represents much more than simple cross-disciplinary team efforts. It embodies rather a recognition that the social world cannot be easily carved into neat academic disciplines; that, indeed, the study of the experience of blacks in American ghettos, or the manifold uses and abuses of agencies of law enforcement, or the sorts of overseas policies that lead to the celebration of some dictatorships and the condemnation of others, can best be examined from many viewpoints and from the vantage points of many disciplines. The editors of Society magazine are now making available in permanent form the most important work done in the magazine, supplemented in some cases by additional materials edited to reflect the tone and style developed over the years by transaction.