The book is intended primarily for Catholic high school students of Civics or Social Science. Its main purpose is to summarize and present in a consecutive and more or less scientific form the main elements of the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs (especially Leo XIII and our present Holy Father Pius XI), the Catholic Bishops and the standard Catholic authors on questions connected with social organization and public life, including such topics as personal rights and duties, the privileges and position of the family in the social organism, the interrelations of capital and labor, the place of religion in public life, education, the functions of the State, its constitution, laws and administration, the due interrelations of each of its component parts with one another, and much more.