Francis Fukuyama and the End of History (Political Philosophy Now)

Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man has been one of the most widely debated books since the end of the Cold War. In this book, Howard Williams, David Sullivan and E. Gwynn Matthews argue that Fukuyama’s continuing fundamental contributions to debates concerning the spread of democracy and threat of global terror mark him out as one of the most important thinkers of the twenty-first century. Francis Fukuyama provides an up-to-date assessment of the impact and importance of Fukuyama’s argument in the twenty years that have followed its first appearance. Fukuyama's concept of the End of History has been one of the most widely debated theories of international politics since the end of the Cold War. This book discusses Fukuyama's claim that liberal democracy alone is able to satisfy the human aspiration for freedom and dignity, and explores the way in which his thinking is part of a philosophical tradition which includes Kant, Hegel and Marx. Two new chapters in this second edition discuss the ways in which Fukuyama's thinking has developed – they include his celebrated and controversial criticism of neoconservatism and his complex intellectual relationship to Samuel Huntington, whose Clash of Civilization thesis he rejects but whose notion of political decay is central to his more recent work. The authors here argue that Fukuyama's continuing fundamental contributions to debates concerning the spread of democracy and threat of global terror mark him out as one of the most important thinkers of the twenty-first century. Kant : History And The Moral Imperative -- Hegel : Spirit And State -- Marx : Communism And The End Of Prehistory -- Fukuyama I : Reinventing Optimism -- Fukuyama Ii : Recognition And Liberal Democracy -- Fukuyama Iii : International Dimensions -- Popper : A Liberal Critic Of The End Of History -- Religion And The End Of History -- Rewriting Modernity : History, Progress And Identity -- Fukuyama After The End Of History -- Philosophies Of History. Howard Williams, David Sullivan And E. Gwynn Matthews. A new edition of a standard work which places Fukuyama’s concept of the End of History in the context of a major intellectual tradition in Western philosophy, and which looks at how his more recent work engages with such vital issues such as the spread of democracy and threat of global terror.