Kennedy would return to the theme of Why England Slept during the Berlin Crisis. HIs book didn't point blame so much at Chamberlain. He saw the matter as an expression of the differences between the way a free society and a totalitarian state can motivate, react, take arms and defend freedom against an aggressor. America, of course, had the war for independence, a clear motivation, a clear enemy.

How can a free thinker be motivated to join society, to best put his talents and education to the service of a free society? It seems much can go wrong, perhaps in the psyche of the individual, but also in the treatment he receives. How does the great thinker, the great soul, the Jesus, the Buddha, and by extension, a normal human being fit in, and avoid becoming a drop-out, a martyr, a bum writer, or simply someone not fully using his or her talents?

To go be that 'drop-out,' checking in on the morality of society from its edges, is a recurrent theme in literature, American and other.