The twentieth century's greatest American dissenter has written a study of the five men whose own dissents helped shape the western world -- Socrates, Galileo, Tom Paine, Wendell Phillips, and Gandhi. Conformity to custom, Mr. Thomas believes, is essential to the human community; it provides a base for judgment and security, Progress, however, depends on those who go beyond custom in search of the truth and thus cause us to reappraise our loyalties...