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The End of History and the Last Man
Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The
...morePaperback, 464 pages
Published
March 1st 2006
by Free Press
(first published 1992)
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I normally dont get down with political philosophy books, but this one really explores some serious ideas while putting them in the context of history. Fukuyama bases almost all of his ideology off of Hegel and Kojeve, a modern Hegel scholar from Czech Republic. I love history yet have found Hegel incomprehensible and too dense to even consider buying one of his tomes - for people who are interested in history or the idea of dialectics, read this book. Fukuyama explains Hegel while placing him i...more
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Though I disagree with the assumptions that Fukuyama makes in this book, I applaud his ability to define such a coherent theory on social evolution. I read this book together with Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations". The pair of books suggest that academia is perhaps less about identifying truth than about presenting well-structured arguments.
In "The History of Man", Fukuyama walks through the development of democratic society based on Christian principles and...more
In "The History of Man", Fukuyama walks through the development of democratic society based on Christian principles and...more
Ryan Milbrath
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Francis Fukuyama: the eternal political optimist. A second generation Japanese-American, Fukuyama grew up in Chicago: the eternal haven for free-market capitalism and gangsters. Upon receiving a degree in classics from Cornell and a doctorate in government from Harvard he wrote, among other things, “The End of history and the Last Man.” Fukuyama has written several other works of political science and has advised the likes of the Reagan administration. Despite these controversial moves, I do ...more
I think the importance and significance of this book has been grossly understated. Furthermore, I think many people fail to understand Fukuyama's argument. The reason, I speculate, is that many people who talk about the book have read about it, but have not read it.
Despite some political turmoil in the modern world, liberal democracy and economic liberalism do seem to signal the end of political evolution. According to Fukuyama, "The success of democracy in a wide variety of...more
Despite some political turmoil in the modern world, liberal democracy and economic liberalism do seem to signal the end of political evolution. According to Fukuyama, "The success of democracy in a wide variety of...more
Fukuyama's essential thesis is that Liberal Democracy is the political system best suited for human beings. He takes his cue from Hegel, with his theory of the universal history and the historical dialectic, and his conclusion that the dialectic has finally been resolved in the Western liberal political system. The greatest opponent to Hegel's theory was Marx, who contended that as long as there is class inequality, there will be class warfare. Today, however, Marxism stands utterly defeated, an...more
Tesis Francis memakai teori Hegel ttg metode Dialektika Sejarah. Meskipun sangat bertentangan dengan sabda Karl Marx , tentang “ the end of history “ sebagai bentuk final dari evolusi sejarah dan peradaban manusia, tetapi memakai metode yg sama, berupa DIALEKTIKA HISTORIKAL.menurut Francis bentuk finalnya adalah demokrasi liberal ala kapitalism.dunia pasca perang dingin antara komunisme dan kapitalisme; sebagai pemenangnya tentu saja kapitalisme sebagai ideologi yg diadopsi secara global.
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hmmm...and interesting opinion by Fukuyama regarding his imagination of a linear history of world politics that will end in one point. Apparently it doesn't work that way, many anti-thesis appears recently...
terlalu mendewakan liberalisme dan kapitalisme tapi punya pengecualian terhadap pranata sosial jalan tengah.
mungkin yang dimaksud dia seperti keberagaman yang dimiliki oleh Indonesia dimana ideologi bangsa tersusun atas keanekaragaman budaya, adat istiadat, tatanan sosial yang terangkum dalam Pancasila, yang ironisnya makin pudar karena degradasi nasionalisme yang mungkin sengaja di-set oleh pihak-pihak yang menghendaki agar bangsa Indonesia tetap terkontrol oleh "mereka"
inti...more
mungkin yang dimaksud dia seperti keberagaman yang dimiliki oleh Indonesia dimana ideologi bangsa tersusun atas keanekaragaman budaya, adat istiadat, tatanan sosial yang terangkum dalam Pancasila, yang ironisnya makin pudar karena degradasi nasionalisme yang mungkin sengaja di-set oleh pihak-pihak yang menghendaki agar bangsa Indonesia tetap terkontrol oleh "mereka"
inti...more
I usually don't get around to reading the books I'm assigned for my classes. I don't have time for anything more intensive than lightly skimming the parts that I need for writing papers or taking an exam. But this is the second semester that I'm being taught Mr. Fukuyama and I'm sad I didn't read him sooner. He's just all around a cool guy and this book is worth reading. He came to lecture here at UC Berkeley a few months ago and I seriously regret not having him sign my battered copy of The End...more
he belives socialism and nationalism are dead and liberalism has no rivals at the moment.religious movements like islam which is the only one suggests a system and ethnic nationalism may be candidate rivals in the future.he sees kurds in this scope.he avoids huge china and its communist power.he never discusses the power of US and her policies around the world.9/11 attacks,terrorism,rise of china,huge economic crisis in europe and north america,revolutions in north africa,US politics around the...more
I still like Fukuyama's analysis & think he's been pretty unfairly treated - I think a lot of people think he's hopelessly naive for thinking that liberal democracy is an end-state of human socio-political organization (either that there can be an end-state, or that some form of liberal democracy is it, or that liberal democracy has triumphed in reality). However, I think his judgement is suspended and his thesis is really intended to open debate rather than make statements of fact - the crucial...more
Thamrong
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Someone says Fukuyama is an arshole and he probably right. His writing was purely speculative and befitting the circumstances when it was written. The demised of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.Now that much water has flowed under the bridge, coupled with the 9/11, the scenario of the world geo-political picture has changed. The Russian embracing crude capitalism with the oil and gas will eventually squeezing the Western Europe, the rising of China and India as Asian superpower and...more
He's essentially right. And if he's essentially right, then wow, this is a major work.
Why he's right:
1. Man has a nature.
2. Man has accumulated knowledge about this nature.
3. Therefore the history of man's knowledge is progressive, and continues to progress.
We've hit a point where many of the Big Questions have been answered, and now we are caught between bourgeois vulgarity and Third World irrationality. But it's the best place to be, the best we've ever...more
Why he's right:
1. Man has a nature.
2. Man has accumulated knowledge about this nature.
3. Therefore the history of man's knowledge is progressive, and continues to progress.
We've hit a point where many of the Big Questions have been answered, and now we are caught between bourgeois vulgarity and Third World irrationality. But it's the best place to be, the best we've ever...more
What I found of real interest in Francis Fukuyama's book is that I always understood much of what he wrote about, although I didn't realize that they were also the opinions, though a mixed bag of them, of Nietzsche, John Locke, and Hegel.
As an example of the Last Man concept, just look at most of our younger generations. Too often in the past, as well as in today's time, our people have been declared as "too fat and happy". Obama's remarks side, people were considered too ...more
As an example of the Last Man concept, just look at most of our younger generations. Too often in the past, as well as in today's time, our people have been declared as "too fat and happy". Obama's remarks side, people were considered too ...more
Fukuyama has been much ridiculed since the publication of this book, and the piling-on only increased in intensity after the towering cataclysm of September 11th seemed to herald the exact opposite of what Fukuyama allegedly proclaimed. I say allegedly because Fukuyama himself backed away from the logical implications of his own theory long before the final page—in a review of Trust, another Goodreads' member accused Fukuyama of incessant hedging, an imputation with which I concur. This is the w...more
En este libro la verdad es que se presenta una defensa bastante abierta y absoluta a la economía liberal, liberalismo o sociedad de libre mercardo. Sostiene el autor que esta corriente se va visto fortalecida por un par de hechos históricos fundamentales que han sido la declaración de derechos universales y la constitución política de Estados Unidos, las cuales en términos generales han consagrado la defensa de la igualdad en dignidad para todos las mujeres y hombres de esta planeta y promueve t...more
I give this book three stars even though I think the point of the book is totally wrong.
Basically he is saying that the political, economic evolution of man has reached its culmination (though very imperfectly) in American democracy and western capitalist organization. That modern capitalism so closely fits basic human nature that from now on it is only a matter of tinkering, There will be no more major changes in how society organizes itself politically and economically.
Before y...more
Basically he is saying that the political, economic evolution of man has reached its culmination (though very imperfectly) in American democracy and western capitalist organization. That modern capitalism so closely fits basic human nature that from now on it is only a matter of tinkering, There will be no more major changes in how society organizes itself politically and economically.
Before y...more
I read only the End of History, so cannot comment on the new version. Fukuyama completely missed the point that democracy, like any other cultural product, requires maintenance. At the very least that requires a constant reaffirmation of what "democracy" means in practice. The pressure of capitalism, particularly Reaganomics and consequent concentration of wealth and power, on democratic principles was already clear in 1992 so it baffles me why he missed it.
Is this guy friggin serious? Leave it to a neocon to write such an ahistorical history. I'm reminded of a Frederic Jameson line: "this whole global, yet American, postmodern culture is the internal and superstructural expression of a whole new wave of American military and economic domination throughout the world: in this sense, as throughout class history, the underside of culture is blood, torture, death, and terror."
The only interesting thing about this book is how it was so dominant when it came out, with everybody cheering for the conversion of the former "communist" nations to "democracy", and how irrelevant it is now.
This guy is kind of an asshole, and his sole accomplishment is that we can gauge which way the ideology of hegemony is pointing by the relative popularity of his cheerleading efforts.
This guy is kind of an asshole, and his sole accomplishment is that we can gauge which way the ideology of hegemony is pointing by the relative popularity of his cheerleading efforts.
Neocon cheer-leading for our present society based on a misreading of Kojeve. In totally fails to take into account the changeability of dialectics, or the fact that non-identity is never entirely overcome. For instance, it makes people's need for recognition into this stable, static thing called the thymotic urge. Which misses the point quite a bit. It's good only where it is unoriginal.
Carlos
added it
Fukuyama describes with erudition the evolution of various forms of government that led to what he calls the last human form: liberal democracy. In light of the current revolutions in North African and Middle East countries, the book provides insight into societal hurdles that interfere with the establishment of true democracies. All in all a very good reading.
After first reading this book ten or so years ago I briefly took to call myself a Fukuyaman. After 9/11 that proved to be pretty dumb, but this book is still an important read especially if read in contrast to Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations.
It was interesting, but unconvincing. I've never read a lot of political philosophy. The branches I'm more used to take a more empirical approach. Fukuyama feigns attention to modern science, but ends up with armchair reasoning, which is where he lost me in the end. It's an engaging perspective, even if his conclusions reach too far.
A very controversial work by Fukuyama. Because what we see today is way different from what he offers- it seems that democracry is purely a western idea, incapable of rooting in other civilizations. It is a bit idealistic and utopic, I would like to believe Fukuyama, but my reason and the news are telling a different story.
As the founding philosophy of the neo-conservative movement, this book is compulsive reading and well-presented, but fails to address how we got here. Time has proven that this great new window of liberalism is not to be unless we address the lingering issues first.
Thought provoking. And ultimately wrong. Written after the fall of communism but before the spread of radical Islam. It was truly an exhilarating read. The ideas are still worth considering, and I just might read it again some day.
This book explains a lot about the world. Not everything but a lot. And it's gotten a bad rap because most people who criticize it haven't read it and assume his thesis is far simpler - and erroneous - than it actually is.
I read more than anyone in our bk club, including the person who chose it, and I only got through a 100 pages. Some interesting ideas but the writing and accessibility was completely absent.
Not a particularly good book. I think Derrida described it best in 'Specters of Marx' when he said it was "the grammar school exercise of a young, industrious, but come-lately reader of Kojeve (and a few others)".
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Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (born 27 October 1952) is an American philosopher, political economist, and author.
Francis Fukuyama was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese-American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church and received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago. His mother, Toshiko Kaw...more
More about Francis Fukuyama...
Francis Fukuyama was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese-American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church and received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago. His mother, Toshiko Kaw...more
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“It was the slave's continuing desire for recognition that was the motor which propelled history forward, not the idle complacency and unchanging self-identity of the master”
—
3 people liked it
“For Hegel, freedom was not just a psychological phenomenon,
but the essence of what was distinctively human. In this sense,
freedom and nature are diametrically opposed. Freedom does not mean the freedom to live in nature o r according to nature; rather, freedom begins only where nature ends. Human freedom emerges only when man is able to transcend his natural, animal existence, and to create a new self for himself The emblematic starting point for this process of self-creation is the struggle to the death for pure prestige.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
but the essence of what was distinctively human. In this sense,
freedom and nature are diametrically opposed. Freedom does not mean the freedom to live in nature o r according to nature; rather, freedom begins only where nature ends. Human freedom emerges only when man is able to transcend his natural, animal existence, and to create a new self for himself The emblematic starting point for this process of self-creation is the struggle to the death for pure prestige.”
