Nicholas Wade has an interesting review of Francis Fukuyama's new book, The Origins of Political Order. I must admit that I have not had a particularly favorable opinion of Fukuyama as a scholar, colored no doubt by his neo-con politics. However, this ambitious book seems to me worth a read and I've just acquired it. Here is an excerpt from Wade's review:
Dr. Fukuyama, a political scientist, is concerned mostly with the cultural, not biological, aspects of human society. But he explicitly assumes that human social nature is universal and is built around certain evolved behaviors like favoring relatives, reciprocal altruism, creating and following rules, and a propensity for warfare.
Because of this shared human nature, with its biological foundation, “human politics is subject to certain recurring patterns of behavior across time and across cultures,” he writes. It is these worldwide patterns he seeks to describe in an analysis that stretches from prehistoric times to the French Revolution.
Previous attempts to write grand analyses of human development have tended to focus on a single causal explanation, like economics or warfare, or, as with Jared Diamond’s “Guns, Germs and Steel,” on geography. Dr. Fukuyama’s is unusual in that he considers several factors, including warfare, religion, and in particular human social behaviors like favoring kin.
More here. More reviews in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and a less charitable one in the Guardian.
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