During his time studying at the University of Michigan, Service joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the Republican Faction in Spain to fight against the victorious Nationalist Faction of General Francisco Franco during the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War.

In 1962, Elman Service published his four classifications of the stages of social evolution and political organizations: band, tribe, chiefdom, and state.

He believed there were no true class conflicts, but only power struggles between the political elite in early civilizations.

The integration part of this theory was that monuments were created through volunteering, not the leaders forcing it upon the populace.

Elman Service also coined what he called “Law of Evolutionary Potential” in relation to cultural evolution.