First published 2026
Francis Fukuyama examines his intellectual journey from neoconservative academic to critic of American foreign policy. The author of The End of History traces his transformation through key moments: his early research work for Ronald Reagan as California governor, his CIA contracts in the 1980s, and his eventual break with mentors like Allan Bloom and Paul Wolfowitz. Fukuyama explains why he reversed his positions on the Iraq invasion and free market economics after the 2008 financial crisis. He weaves personal history with political analysis, connecting his father's civil rights activism to his own evolving worldview. The memoir spans three decades of American politics, from the Bush presidencies through Obama and Trump, examining events from the War on Terror to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Fukuyama offers readers both an insider's account of conservative intellectual circles and a framework for understanding how democracy might recover from current threats.
Genres: history, american, politics, biography-memoir, 21st-century, current-affairs
Vibes: analytical, candid, intellectually-rigorous, introspective, thought-provoking
Tropes: ideological-transformation, insider-perspective, intellectual-journey, personal-history-woven-with-analysis
Setting: United States, California, Iraq, Russia, Ukraine
Period: 1980s, 2000s, 2008 financial crisis, War on Terror, Bush presidencies, Obama administration, Trump administration
304 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux