"The great utopians have been our great realists." With this powerful insight the Manuels embark on a journey of 2,500 years which leaves the mind spinning. From Plato's Mediterranean Republic to More's island of Utopia; from Bacon's New Atlantis to Marx's Paradise of the Proletariat; and from Campanella's City of the Sun to McLuhan's Global Village, the utopian instinct has set in motion a series of visions which have been the key drivers behind major social and scientific accomplishments in the western world.

In chronicling what they call "the utopian propensity of mind," the Manuels essentially create a new genre, at once literary and philosophical. At its broadest, it would reach into the religious sphere - the "utopian moments" of Eastern Enlightenments, the Revelations of St. John on the island of Patmos. But the Manuels, wisely, pull back from the cosmic view to the generally secular, social, visions of a better world on earth.

The best utopians are realists, in that they focus the fire of their vision on the concrete specifics of this world, transporting them into the framework of an ideal universe. The vision, to quote a poet, is that of "real toads in imaginary gardens." Setting out from points of contact in the real world, they move into uncharted territories and terrains, places where no one has yet gone. Etymologically, "Utopia" is the Great Good Place which is No Place. Chimerical, fantastic, improbable, and motivating, Utopias are the engines behind our evolutionary imaginations.

At 900 pages and 17 pounds, this beautifully written, erudite and witty book from the 1970s is an unrecognized national treasure, waiting, like some ancient artifact of utopia itself, to be uncovered and released to the world.

Like the imaginary voyages of the 18th century, like science fiction, and like the virtual realities of the Worldwide Web, the visionary landscapes of utopia startle, wake up, and propel us towards the creation of our own future. Go buy this from your nearest Amazon used-book dealer, and start creating your own future!

Note: The Manuels' map of utopia is a map of the human imagination at its richest, and actually could become a roadmap for the Worldwide Web as well.

I've read hundreds of books about the Second World War and purchased this book assuming I'd learn alot about something my prior readings had missed: what it was like in Germany after the fighting stopped. I was disappointed. The writing was disjointed and confusing. There was no flow to the story. I learned little about that period of time or what it was like to be there. Ultimately, after reading 40 pages and then skimming the next 50 I put the book away. Don't bother buying this book.

Scenes From The End by Frank E. Manuel, published by Steerforth Press, 2000.

If you are looking for the usual reminiscences where an old soldier describes his Sherman tank cracking a curbstone in Prague in 1945 and seeing the same crack in 1995, then this book is NOT for you. Manuel's present memoirs, on the end of World War II in Europe, are written in a literate style by a man literate, not only in English, but also in French, German and Yiddish. Frank E. Manuel begins his book with the Battle of the Bulge, but he really does not see much action. The central theme of his book is not, however, about military action, but rather the feelings and motivation of the enemy soldiers he interrogated. The POWs ranged in rank from private to general. Mr. Manuel describes their attitudes and personal attributes when captured. A particularly notable chapter is Chapter 8, entitled, "A Houseful of Generals", where , in a the town of Weilheim, many of the German generals and their staff decided to stop running from the advancing American armies. This chapter is a literate rebuttal of the German offer to become allies with the Anglo-Americans to keep the Mongol-Bolsheviks out of Western Europe. Of course, this offer was rejected, and Frank Manuel states, "We wanted the Germans to say that they were ashamed of themselves", p. 97. His next-to-last chapter is on his encounter with Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, when he and the Admiral are transported to General Patch's headquarters. He describes the Admiral's ineffectual attempts to break with his German allies, as the War comes towards its end. The quote Mr. Manuel uses is, "Was konnte ich denn machen?", in English, "What could I do?" These are the words he also uses to end this chapter.

Throughout this book, Frank Manuel is well aware of his own Jewishness and how others could identify him as being a Jew. The author senses that old Admiral Horthy knew that he was Jewish, and Horthy gave a monologue on "...his protection of Hungarian Jews and his refusal to participate in their round-up by the Nazis". P. 120. The author also relates how Polish officers questioned him, in Yiddish, about being a Jew. But, in all of this, Frank Manuel is not, as far as I can read, defensive about being Jewish. In describing the fate of the Poles, he states that "...they would wander the earth like the Jews and the Irish". P. 71. In this single line, the author shows a deeper understanding of the many diasporas (Irish, Jewish or Polish) than many who believe in a monopoly of persecution, suffered only by their own kind. This book is well worth your time.

In the spring of 1945, Frank Manuel was a 34 year old intelligence officer fluent in French, German, and Yiddish as the American Army pushed into Germany. Scenes From The End: The Last Days Of World War II In Europe begins at about the same time as the Battle of the Bulge, and covers the last few months of combat with the German forces until the surrender of Germany to the Allies. Manuel vividly distills the utter chaos and frequent absurdity of war in its final hour. He is able to provide the reader with a clear and candid sense of what it was like, from anonymous encounters with Holocaust survivors, to the interrogations of captured German soldiers, to an unforgettable car ride with Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, at a time when the Allies had not yet decided wether to regard him as a victim of circumstance or major war criminal. Scenes From The End is a unique and invaluable contribution to the growing body of military memoirs and biographies focused on the World War II European Theater.