“If you rule out dirty hands, don’t you rule out politics?“ This is one of several touchy questions confronted by Professor Ellul, who teaches the history of law and social history at the University of Bordeaux. His reputation, already strong in Europe, has grown in the United Stales with publication by Alfred Knopf of three of his books (THE TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.1964; PROPAGANDA,1965; and THE POLITICAL ILLUSION,1967 ).This essay is drawn from the new Ellul book, A CRITIQUE OF THE NEW COMMONPLACES,translated from the French by Helen Weaver,and scheduled by Knopf for publication in May.