Recent advances in hypertension therapy have been remarkable; however, much less is known about those precursors that facilitate preventive and early intervention measures. This review of the literature indicates that relevant precursors are early elevated casual systolic blood pressures, positive family history, and obesity in females. Additional predisposing or enhancing factors point to high sodium ingestion, heavy smoking, and high socioecologic stress. Evidence for a high-risk hypertensive personality is not conclusive. There is a paucity of longitudinal data on hypertension in the black population.