On the occasion of Irving Louis Horowitz's seventy-fifth birthday, a special two-part volume has been assembled, it includes: a set of twelve essays reflecting the range of ideas with which he has been involved over the past five decades, and a complete list of his writings during the same period, 1951-2004. The use of Shakespeare's well-known phrase from Henry V as a metaphor for combat and struggle was selected as epitomizing Horowitz's life and work.

The essays and articles are a small selection of a large of writings that over the years have attracted a fair share of attention—both approving and disapproving. It is to be hoped that this sampling of his writing, along with a complete listing of his work will explain the title, but more, illuminate his sense of doing social science, one at once classic and postmodern. As Jacques Barzun wrote of Horowitz's volume of Tributes to other social scientists: "he offers a unique education in the history of ideas about man and society."

The articles included in the volume are drawn from public lectures and private memoirs: Predicting and Remembering Scholarly Publishing as the Word Made Flesh Three Worlds of Development: 35 Years Later Editing Society: Final Thoughts, Last Hurrahs Social Science as a Moral Calling Gauging Genocide Cuban Communism and Cuban Studies The Logic of Transaction A Prologue to Academic Freedom The Aims and Principles of Social Research Sociology and the Common Culture Facts, Values and Science