Synopsis: "A fantastic classic science fiction tale from an anonymous late-19th century author. In a far-flung future, humanity has colonised the solar system. The story is set against a background of interplanetary war, with mighty electric spaceships riding the inter-system electric currents to battle in epic space warfare." --summary, one WorldCat library record of the Luton Andrews UK Ltd 2012 e-book, OCLC 948782073 From the Introduction: Man Abroad is an unusually sophisticated work for its time and length. Although it is presented as a fairly simple tale of conflict and adventure in the solar system, it deals with contemporary political and economic issues in a manner that commands respect. As a piece of science fiction, Man Abroad is almost but not quite, space opera. It presents men flitting about the solar system in ill-described vehicles, using even less well-described sources of power, and traveling at speeds that simply don't make sense. Whoever the author may have been, it is unlikely that he was a scientist. But as a piece of social science fiction, Man Abroad is much more interesting. There are four themes that should be noted: first, the author's use of a federal system for the earth; second, his analysis of political corruption within that system; third, his analysis of the forces of colonialism or imperialism; and fourth, his use of the ideas of Henry George (1839-1897). Each of them deserves some attention, particularly since when first looked at, the themes and the way they are developed appear to be in direct contradiction. While world federalism was not a common argument in the late nineteenth century, it was not unknown either. Various forms of world government have been proposed at least since Dante's De Monarchia, and various forms of federal union had been particularly common in the eighteenth-century French utopias. But the particular form of union used in Man Abroad reflects and unusual combination of patriotism and internationalism. The union is brought about through the U.S. control of the world with the addition of large numbers of new states. The detail is weak, but the author seems to have thought the U.S. system worth exporting o the rest of the world, accepted a truly one world system. While it is possible to be both a patriot and an internationalist, particularly if your internationalism includes your country taking over the world, such a person does not usually argue that they system is corrupt. The corruption in Man Abroad is fairly specific, but at the same time, it is not quite as simple as it first appears. The political process has become corrupted by money. The Senate represents wealth and is totally corrupt; it has also bought off the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court is composed of retired Senators. The Senate's normal approach to any issue is to determine how much money can be made from it. It uses bribery to get the house to agree. The electoral process has been totally corrupted by the greed of the Senators. Still, there are a few honest men: the author comments on one such man that he is rich enough not to easily be bribed. Also the author still has faith in the people. When aroused by the her, Weber Lockmore - a newspaperman who manipulates the news to some extent but mostly exposes the willingness of the Senators to sell out the Earth itself for money - the people make the right choice. And when the President, one of the very few uncorrupted politicians, makes a plea for civil service reform, he asks, not for changes in the law, but for the pressure of enlightened public opinion. On the other hand, it is clear that the people are easily swayed and manipulated for political and economic gain. And particularly they are swayed by demands for national expansion. The author presents national expansion almost as if it were a natural law. The comments are directed specifically at politicians, bu the author presents the solar system as an area of constant conflict centering on the exploitation of raw materials. Each planet wants to control every other planet to enrich itself and to fulfill the "natural" need to constantly expand. The result if, of course, war. Whether the author has in mind the activities of the United States in the continental expansion that came to include direct control of Puerto Rico, the Phillipines, and the Canal Zone, and indirect control over much of Latin and South America, or the European scramble for colonies in Africa and Asia, he presents a fairly accurate picture of the way nations actually acted. Nationalism, corruption, expansion, raw materials - the mix was volatile and exploded regularly. But the author also felt that there was a way out, an utopia of sorts, in the ideas of Henry George, suitably modified. Henry George, one of the best known social philosophers and economists of the late nineteenth century is virtually unknown now, even though a foundation to perpetuate his teachings remains in existence.. After sailing to Australia and India as a foremast boy, George learned printing and became first a typesetter and later held various editorial positions in San Francisco. It was his observations of the California land boom that led him to develop his theory that all taxation should be based on land; his theory is known as the single tax. In 1879 his major work, Progress and Poverty, was published and gained him world-wide recognition. He spent the rest of his life as a political propagandist and writer. He also ran for election to a number of offices, and in 1886, the year Man Abroad was published, he ran as the labor candidate for mayor of New York. He lost to the Democratic candidate 90,552 to 68,110, but he ran ahead of the Republican candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, who received 60,435 votes. Since George was a newspaperman like Weber Lockmore, the hero of Man Abroad, and the book was published in the same year as George's election campaign, one could easily see the book as a campaign document, bu the changes made to George's theory makes this unlike. According to the author of Man Abroad, following George slavishly had led to corruption, destroyed individualism, and brought socialism. "Wealth accumulated and men decayed" (p.41). Then the people of Henrygeorgia realized that collecting only enough money for the essential functions of government would stop corruption and, as a matter of fact, eliminate most government activities. A number of other specific changes were made in George's theory to encourage small land holdings, land improvement, and avoid monopoly power through the control of land. Thus the theory of George revised is designed by the author to answer the problem of corruption. But in the novel the approach did not find immediate favor on earth. Still the corruption revealed by Weber Lockmore did lead to the abolition of the Senate, giving appointive power solely to the President, and the establishment of an interstate convention on uniform legislation, which seats Henrygeorgia as a member, thus paving the way for a federal solar system. Also, the convention passed many of the reforms popular at the time. Man Abroad is a complicated little book and deserves considerably more attention than it has had or that one would give it on first glance. It is unfortunate that we don't know the name of the author. Lyman Tower Sargent University of Missouri - St. Louis"