I just wrapped Fukuyama masterwork this morning in Munich. Nice to finish a serious piece like this before the train to St. Anton. Not only do I now have one less thing to carry, finishing this one lets me move onto the lighter fare I brought on vacation, A Confederacy of Dunces.
The End of History lived up to its esteemed reputation. For me, Fukuyama provides a cogent explanation of the historical movement toward liberal democracy. I am fairly indifferent to his argument that there is a slow global trend toward liberal democracy. With individual sovereignty out of reach, I already viewed liberal democracy as a our best possible compromise and I am pretty good so long as there is no political backsliding in the Anglosphere. However while reading this book, I did realize how much on a day-to-day basis, I take for granted liberty and equality, the "twin pillars of liberal democracy." It is nice to be able to work and live in a period of so much freedom and relative stability. I doubt I would be a trader at a hedge fund (or any investment company for that matter) back in Franco's Madrid, Hitler's Berlin, Kruschev's Moscow, Yoshinobu's Tokyo or Khomeini's Tehran. I'd probably be some sort of lame government bean counter provided I was given access to any sort of education at all.
Well, I've already got America at the Crossroads and Our Posthuman Future on the bookshelf though they are behind The Constitution of Liberty and The American Challenge in the reading queue...