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The End of History and the Last Man

Francis Fukuyama

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The End of History and the Last Man Summary and Study Guide

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OVERVIEW

The End of History and the Last Man by political scientist Francis Fukuyama is a widely read and
controversial book on political philosophy published in 1992. In it, Fukuyama argues that the end of the
Cold War in 1991 established Western liberal democracy as the final and most successful form of
government, thus marking the conclusion of “mankind’s ideological evolution.” Since its original release,
the book has been updated in 2006 and 2019 with reassertions and some modifications of the original
thesis. At the time of its original release, The End of History inspired lively debate in academic circles and
among media commentators. This guide references the 2006 Free Press Kindle edition.

Summary

The book asserts that the end of the Cold War signals the end of history. The term “history” does not
refer to a series of events, which, of course, continue to occur. Instead, the text focuses on an endpoint
in the evolution of history. This approach is akin to a linear, secular eschatology, the branch of theology
concerned with God’s final judgment and the afterlife. According to Fukuyama, this endpoint constitutes
the eventual political transition into liberal democracies and their economic system, capitalism, all
around the world. He believes that the world would still comprise different states as individual political
entities with certain national characteristics. However, their internal dynamics would be similar in terms
of their relative material abundance, equal and free elections, and egalitarianism in the legal system.
The author also suggests that the transition of all countries to this political model may signal the end of
military conflicts because during the Cold War liberal democracies maintained amicable international
relations.

The book is divided into five parts. Each part addresses an important theme or group of themes. The
first part focuses on general ideological trends in in the Modern period and the possibility of a universal
history of humankind. The second part discusses in more detail the ideological battle that took part
during the Cold War between Communism and Liberalism, as well as the question of prerequisites for
establishing a liberal democracy such as education and technological growth. The third part of the book
examines the question of identity and its recognition, and how this question transformed throughout
the history of Western thought. Part 4 describes attitudes toward work and obstacles to liberal
democracy such as political nationalism and religion. Finally, the end of the book examines the negative
aspects of liberal democracies, including socioeconomic inequality.

The author situates his argument about the end of history in the work of 19th century German
philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Specifically, Fukuyama borrows Hegelian historicism and its
evolutionary approach driven by the Spirit of History but adapted to the realities of the 20th century. To
establish Liberalism as the optimal ideology, Fukuyama examines the Modern period in broad strokes,
including: the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment, European colonial conquest, world wars and
the Holocaust, the Cold War, and nuclear weapons. He asserts that the Modern period produced three
key ideologies: Liberalism, Communism, and Fascism. The author examines each ideology. They feature
a distinct focal point and a historical driving force like Hegel’s Spirit of History. For Fascism, this focal
point was the state or race. Communism focused on class. Liberalism, the oldest and the only remaining
ideology of Modernity, on the other hand, uses the individual as its historic subject. Fukuyama then
underscores the collapse of Fascism in 1945 and Communism in the late 1980s by characterizing them as
ideologies with global ambitions. He concludes that it is not coincidental that Liberalism remained the
only Modern ideology capable of conquering the world.
Hegel is not the only philosopher of note in The End of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama examines
other Western thinkers including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. By
examining the transformation of key concepts in political philosophy, such as the question of individual
human identity and the social contract between the state and those it governs, the author ambitiously
seeks to establish a universal history of humankind. He outlines this universal history strictly from a
Western perspective and then applies it to non-Western parts of the world. The author assesses non-
Western regions using several categories such as technological innovation. In doing so, he automatically
places the West in the Modern period ahead of the curve and ranks many countries in Latin America,
Southeast Asia, and Africa as underdeveloped. The author’s assumption that there is a single, unified
human history written from a Western perspective, rather than culturally specific local and regional
histories, is in line with Modern thinking. This runs counter to the Postmodern destruction of such a
“grand narrative.” Yet technological advancement is not a guarantee of moral behavior, as the examples
of the Holocaust and the U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki
demonstrate.

Whereas equal rights, education, and economic development are key rational elements in a liberal
democracy, the need for recognition of one’s identity by others is another, less rational, feature. The
author typically uses the ancient Greek term thymos to denote this concept. He traces the Modern
development of thymos from Hegel’s concept of a bloody battle, in which recognition was worth dying
for, to the present-day, peaceful way of recognizing the Other as an equal.

Fukuyama believes that the two essential obstacles to establishing a liberal democracy are nationalism
and religion, especially in their political expression. He asserts that these traditional forms of communal
relationships should be made compliant with liberal democracies. For example, for culture this would
mean removing its political aspects and reducing it to benign forms like ethnic cuisines. At the same
time, Fukuyama admits that traditional ties are what made communities strong, and there is a danger of
atomization and loneliness in the most advanced liberal democracies.

The author dedicates the final chapters to examining some of the drawbacks of his preferred political
system. These drawbacks include economic inequalities, crime, and substance abuse. On a deeper level,
Fukuyama wonders whether the material abundance and the safety and security of liberal democracies
would produce the so-called last men whom Friedrich Nietzsche disparaged. These are passive
individuals solely focused on material comforts rather than risk-taking and great creative passions which
made humans great in the past.

The End of History and the Last Man is an important contribution to 20th century political philosophy.
The author is well versed in the history of Western thought which he presents in an accessible way. The
book comprises dozens of historical examples to back up his claims showing the author’s erudition. At
the same time, The End of History sparked discussion and criticism. In the three decades since its initial
publication, the world transformed significantly and not necessarily in favor of liberal democracy. For
example, the rise of China with its alternative social and political system in the 21st century presents a
serious challenge to the end-of-history thesis.