The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of political socialization and life course on the ideological involvement of two cohorts of Norwegian men. Our main thesis is that socialization in a period dominated by political and social conflicts will produce a higher level of ideological involvement than socialization in a period with a low level of political and social conflicts. But the higher level of ideological involvement can be modified by the life course experiences of the cohorts. We are only able to discuss some aspects of this rather general thesis in this article, comparing two cohorts born in 1912 and 1932.