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.