A Tale of Two Utopias is actually four separate lengthy essays by Paul Berman on the worldwide student rebellion of 1968, the gay liberation movement in the United States, Vaclav Havel and the overthrow of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and the response of French intellectual community to the "end of history" theory. What ties these subjects is a strange contrast. The student movement of the 1960s was rooted in peace and other left-leaning ideals; the overthrow of Communism sprung from a desire of free-market economics. Berman doesn't always make these connections obvious; rather he presents well-analyzed, intellectual writings that allow the reader to chart a course through modern history.