Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" changed political discourse forever. Peter and Michael peel back his muddled history and fluffy rhetoric, revealing several more layers of muddled history and fluffy rhetoric. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPod Where to find us: TwitterPeter's other podcast, 5-4Mike's other pod ... Show More
Jul 2023
26: Francis Fukuyama: Trump, Modi, and ‘The End of History’
What was the worst political mistake in modern history? How do religious Republicans bring themselves to support Trump? Was it wrong to describe the fall of the Soviet Union as ‘The End of History’?
On today’s episode of Leading, Alastair and Rory sit down with political scienti ... Show More
58m 39s
Nov 2025
Downstream: Putin’s War in Ukraine Has Ancient Roots w/ Serhii Plokhy
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama, then a very young political scientist, declared that history was over. He wrote a book with the same title just a couple of years later. The Cold War had finished, the USSR had collapsed, liberal democracy and market capitalism reigned supreme, and it w ... Show More
1h 38m
Mar 2022
Timothy Snyder on the Myths That Blinded the West to Putin’s Plans
<p>“Americans and Europeans were guided through the new century by a tale about ‘the end of history,’ by what I will call the <i>politics of inevitability,</i> a sense that the future is just more of the present, that the laws of progress are known, that there are no alternatives ... Show More
1h 11m
May 2024
“The End of Everything,” with Victor Davis Hanson | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution
<p>Classicist Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or ... Show More
1h 5m
Dec 2022
Why the Bad Guys—in China, Russia, Iran, and the U.S.—Are Having a Terrible Winter
One year ago, we had Anne Applebaum on the podcast to talk about her essay, "The Bad Guys Are Winning." And I think you could have made an argument that this was the most important story in geopolitics. Across the world, the rise of authoritarianism—in Russia, China, Turkey, Vene ... Show More
49m 34s