A captivating history of the late-twentieth century from the world-renowned political scientist and thinker

'One of the West's most interesting public intellectuals' THE TIMES 'None is more eminent or experienced than Francis Fukuyama' FINANCIAL TIMES In 1989, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Francis Fukuyama - then an early-career academic who had cut his teeth conducting research for Ronald Reagan during his years as California governor - delivered a conference paper that would go on to become one of the most celebrated -and controversial - works of political theory of our time: The End of History.By 2009, he had broken with his neoconservative mentors, from Allan Bloom to Paul Wolfowitz, after recanting his support for the 'disastrous' invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the laissez-faire economics that produced the financial crash of 2008. But why did he change his mind? In this powerful political memoir, encompassing his father's involvement in the civil rights movement and his own work on CIA contracts in the 1980s, Fukuyama analyses his life alongside the seismic political shifts of the last thirty years - from Bush to Obama to Trump, from the War on Terror to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Profound and provocative, this is an intimate portrait of one of the twenty-first century's most important thinkers, an urgent study of contemporary politics - and a treatise on how the West can claw democracy back from the brink.

Details

ISBN13: 9781805227991
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition: Export/Airside
Publication Date: 08 Sep 2026
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 21.4(H)x13.4(L)x2.8(W)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Francis Fukuyama is the internationally-bestselling author of 11 books, including his globally renowned Liberalism and Its Discontents. He is a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Freeman Spogli Institute, and the Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. He lives in California.

Reviews

Wise and thoughtful... in a world of pretentious complexity, Fukuyama's clarity of prose is a political statement * The Times *
This is the record of the moment when Liberalism learnt to live in the present tense * Financial Times *
Less a conventional autobiography than the story of a life in ideas... For Fukuyama, an end to history never meant an end to thinking * Guardian *
Wonderfully engaging, its intellectual insights [are] persuasive and interesting. A highly readable account of some of the most important ideas of the last 40 years * Literary Review *
Intellectual, interesting and quirky * Prospect *
Praise for Francis Fukuyama: 'Fukuyama has a unique skill for imbuing ideology with a narrative thrust' * New Yorker *
We need more thinkers as wise as Fukuyama * New York Times *
A basic rule of intellectual life is that celebrity destroys quality... Francis Fukuyama is a glorious exception * Economist *
Fukuyama writes about the degeneration of America's political system with the passion and frustration of a prophet straining to be heard * Spectator *
A wealth of insights worthy of the greatest writers of democracy * Financial Times *