This memoir by Howard Wesley Johnson, who was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during the 1960s and 1970s, is an autobiography as well as a history of how MIT coped with and responded to the hyperturbulance of the Vietnam era. The book reflects three themes: it is a history; it is a personal memoir that analyzes the author's mind set; and it is about management and leadership in modern times, about organizing to achieve goals, and about generating sound decisions. The book's 11 chapters are: (1) "Growing Up in South Chicago during the Depression"; (2) "College and Going to War"; (3) "The University of Chicago after the War: Student and Faculty Member"; (4) "Becoming a Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology"; (5) "The School of Industrial Management becomes the Sloan School"; (6) "Early Years as President of MIT"; (7) "Grim Years for the Nation and the Universities"; (8) "Education in the Midst of Turmoil: The Close of a Presidency"; (9) "Chairing the MIT Corporation and Other Challenges"; (10) "Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in a New Era"; and (11) "MIT Goes On." A coda, "Note for Students on Leadership," is appended. (Contains a list of sources and registry of names.) (SM)