The most perplexing problem which the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China raises for analysts concerns the view of history with which to interpret it. Most Westerners have a unilinear perspective which sees a straightforward transition from traditional society (with its agriculturally based economy, diffuse social relationships, and custom-bound orientation) to modern society (with its industrial economy, rational and functionally specific social relationships and secular mentality). This tends also to be the official view of the social sciences as they have developed in the West as well as that upon which governmental policies, journalistic commentary and individual judgement are most often based. Warren Mason teaches political science at Miami University in Ohio.