In the truly vast body of literature about community colleges, no one seems to be asking the rather basic question: Do we really need these schools? Has whatever purpose they may have served a hundred years go, gone away or been supplanted or something of the sort? Such an assessment would be a major undertaking. This paper is a prolegomenon, suggesting the lines of inquiry I think might be profitable in such an assessment and surveying some of the likely literature-highpoints. The topics identified--the origins of the community college, and the stakeholders--are probably those most significant to the larger inquiry. The data and commentary surveyed indicate a good deal of confusion as to mission and goals, in a generally entrenched, "ancien regime" matrix of politicians, administrators and teachers with mixed agenda. This supports a preliminary conclusion that, by and large, it's time for two-year community colleges to either mature into a different kind of tier-three institution, or go away, yielding to a comprehensive tier-two model that includes tier-three elements. (Contains 50 footnotes.)