Summary of the Book “The End of History and the Last Man” By Francis Fukuyama

The book “The End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama was written in the continuation of his article “The End of History?” which was published in The National Interest in 1989. However, the author does not simply restate the article’s arguments. In contrast, Fukuyama explores and asserts his standpoint further. The book is aimed at proving author’s conviction that no matter what the mankind is going in the direction of establishing liberal political democracy as the only working political and economic system in the society.

Fukuyama has divided his work into five distinctive parts. The first part “An Old Question Asked Anew” the author proves the need for viewing development of the world’s systems in the course of Universal History, which was first stated by Hegel. Here Fukuyama shows in a logical manner that History of all countries is going to end when every country accepts liberal political democracy as the only true system of government. He is not asserting that events will stop from happening. By the end of History he implies that there will not be any progress or development of new political and social institutions as all important issues will be set based on two reasons – economic and so called “struggle for recognition.”

In the second part “The Old Age of Mankind” Fukuyama addresses to modern science as one of the most important drives in the human development. Fukuyama is trying to find the mechanism within science that would explain “direction and logical consistency” of the History. The importance of science in development of societies is stressed upon several reasons. Firstly, technology gives countries military privileges that assure their safety from outside menaces of war. Secondly, scientific developments give the way to modernized production, which in turn guarantees accumulation of wealth and satisfaction of consumption needs. Therefore, science and modern technology dictates logical development and evolution in the direction of capitalism, and, thus, liberal political democracy, where a great attention is given to innovations and information.

In the third part “The Struggle for Recognition”, Fukuyama asserts that people act in accordance to their desires and minds. People give some value to them and demand acknowledgement of their being worthy from others. Basing his logic on Hegel’s views, Fukuyama draws the line from fight for equal rights to establishing self-esteem (recognition by others), which, in turn, leads to liberal democracy, thus leading to the end of History. Therefore, having explained the “struggle for recognition”, the author connects economic and political issues of his work that lead to the true liberal political democracy.

In the fourth part “Leaping Over Rhodes”, Fukuyama looks at how struggle for recognition can influence other parts of human life as culture, religion, work, etc. He tries to predict how struggle for recognition can show its worth. However, author also states that under liberal democracy the struggle for recognition in order to be superior to someone is substituted with the struggle for equal recognition.

In the fifth part “The Last Man”, Francis Fukuyama talks about the end result of the End of the History (liberal political democracy), which is the last man, whom he calls “man without chest.” Following suggestion of Nietzsche, Fukuyama asserts that at the end of History loses the desire for further developments as all his main needs and desires are satisfied in liberal political democracy. Nevertheless, Francis Fukuyama ends his book with a new question if the last man is not going to take on a new journey of searching for development like the first man.

Summary word count: 588 words.