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In this work, political, legal and historical scholar Nicholas N. Kittrie explores the causes of escalating world-wide racial, cultural, political and social discontent. He goes beyond traditional explanations such as population explosion, environmental abuse, ancient rivalries or the clash of civilizations. Instead, Kittrie points to a long predicted "crisis of legitimacy," a force that erodes the underpinnings of society and public confidence in its institutions. The text highlights the quest by those out of power to share in society's benefits, and by rulers to gain and maintain the acquiescence of their underlings. The cast of players in the book include: Socrates and Brutus; Robert E. Lee and John Brown; Martin Luther King and Susan B. Anthony; Vladimir Lenin and Mao-Tsetung; and Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan. Their means and causes are just as varied: abolition and slavery; public order and individual conscience; abortion and the right to life; the bomb and the leaflet; freedom fighting and terrorism; communal conciliation and genocide; fundamentalism and heresy; conformity and civil disobedience; tribalism and multiculturalism. This text offers solutions as well as useful methods for governments and individuals to redefine their identities and restore the legitimacy of authority. Kittrie proposes creative, responsive and pluralistic systems of power-sharing and justice. He calls for a new national and world order, committed to the richness of human diversity, the power of the person over government, and the ultimate accountability of all power.