In honor of the 100th anniversary of "The Social Studies," the journal is reprinting this article, originally published in Vol. 55, No. 6 (November 1964). In this essay, Shermis explains that, while prior to 1914 the social studies did not exist, the field had come into existence within five years after World War I ended. The war, subsequent famine, and social upheavals between 1914 and 1923 acted as a catalyst for creation of the social studies. In retrospect, Shermis states that it was likely that, sooner or later, the social studies would have come into existence. Most of the conditions that led to the social studies were in place before World War I. World War I created a sense of failure about citizenship education and generated a clamor for a new educational response. What was clearer in 1964 than it was seventy years prior is that the varied and disparate elements that went into the creation of the field resulted in citizenship education that had a great deal to do with character improvement, the study of the social sciences, inculcation of eternal verities, and indoctrination into selected cultural values, but very little to do with citizenship.