Nations and empires

This study of the perennial patterns, recurring problems and varied, but similar structures of the political order was undertaken with an eye on our present perplexities. It was prompted by the conviction that our generation, which faced the seemingly novel perplexities of the nuclear stalemate and of our encounter with the new secular religion of communism, might be tempted to forget the lessons which the past history of man offer every new generation. I thought the temptation to everestimate the novelty of the present situation was particularly great in a young nation, suddenly ung to a position of world responsibility by its great power. I am well aware that only an amateur would be sufficiently ignorant of the complexities of history and of the varied interpreta tions of historical events to have the tammity to undertake so am bitious a project. I there cave the indulgence of the specialists in the various fields of thought and of action, which I have to vened, if I have not done justice either to the obvious facts or to important diesences in the interpretation of those facts in their several fields

I would like to express my gratitude to the Rockefeller Founda tion for the grant which made a leave for the study possible, and to the Institute for Advanced Study for the invitation to undertake it under its auspices and for fumiching every facility for scholarly pursuits, and particularly to Dr. Robert Oppenheimer for his in terest in, and sympathetic wndenstanding of the purport of my study. I woh also to thank my colleagues on the Faculty of Union Theological Seminary, who granted me the leave, even though the

time for it was only two years from my retirement. I owe special thanks to my friends who read and criticized some or all of the chapten of the manuscript.