Now somewhat dated, this book is, and most certainly was, one of the most formative books for my young-adult mind, as it then was, and has it has since evolved. Mills thought the unthinkable, said the unpopular, and brought the considerable weight of his scholarship and experience of the world to the vital question of the day, and mercifully without the the characteristic jargon of the sociological discipline in which he worked. He understood and demonstrated the underlying similarities between the great modern empires, likewise laid-out the intrinisically anti-democratic nature of decison-making within them, and -- perhaps most important for readers today -- arraigned, tried, and condemned the mass-passivity and gleeful self-imprisonment which keeps such systems going. Because of specific changes in the old USSR and the Eisenhower-era US, my intellectual conscience hold me back from giving this a full five stars. ( )