When History first came to a .

Delighted to discover two things about the title of Francis Fukuyama’s* famous essay and book.

One is that the essay was in fact one of the earliest entries in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No, in that it had a question-mark. It was called The End of History? (while the book was called The End of History and the Last Man).

The other is that it was not original when he took it as his theme. I have just come across an earlier use of the phrase in Sellar and Yeatman’s 1066 And All That, written in 1930, which ends with the Great War.

The Great War was between Germany and America and was thus fought in Belgium … The War lasted for three years or the duration, the Americans being 100% victorious … America was thus clearly top nation, and History came to a .

There follows:

TEST PAPER V: Up to the End of History

Which includes such gems as:

4. ‘An Army marches on its stomach’ (Napoleon). Illustrate and examine.

5. Account (loudly) for the success of Marshal Ney as a leader of horse.

9. Comment Quietly on (a) Tariff Reform. (b) Mafeking Night. (c) The Western Front.

12. What price Glory?

*I interviewed him once, you know.

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• tykejim

  “The War lasted for three years or the duration…”

  I am intrigued. Surely that should be one year (or 20 months to be reasonably exact) since the war did not start until April 1917 (in ‘1066 AAT’ terms)? Am I missing a bit of the joke here?

• Richard_SM

  The question is expanded in the essay: “… but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” Add ?

  To which the answer is ‘maybe.’

• LancashireLad

  History ended shortly after Mr Rentoul started writing about it.

• FenlandBuddha

  That’s how long people were drafted for – “3 years or the duration of the war”. Would have meant a lot more to people in 1930!

• Guest

  Mr. Fukuyama’s desire for an end to history coincided with what he saw as a worldwide consensus that the world would now follow Friedman’s model of the Free Market. He and other neocons wanted no more discussion on the matter; and they get no more discussion in the media of the US and the UK.

  It seems apparent that many countries where unemployment is rapidly increasing and the wealth gap is widening have citizens which would like to argue against this supposed consensus. Since the experimental result of the application of the free market has, in every one of nearly three dozen countries in which it has been applied, been unemployment and an unfair disintergrating societies, it leads to the question as to why people in this country aren’t also complaining whilst the corrupt government set about giving large sums of money to their friends whilst privatising and deregulating everything?

• petersimplex

  Because Rentoul and his surface feeding chums of the MSM , worried that we have that dangerous pencil in our hands every 4 or 5 years, make sure we are diverted from these vital questions with their diversionary pseudo-intellectual piffle. Why do the broadsheets have acres of sports and celeb coverage? The chattering classes’ largactyl. They’re all the same, Sun, Guardian, Independent,Mail….thought the Mail,uniquely isn’t frightened of disturbing the cosy status quo occasionally.

• http://twitter.com/PatrickOsgood Patrick Osgood

  Ha! What an excellent satire on verkrappt leftist nonsense. I salute you sir.

• Guest

  “Mr. Fukuyama’s desire for an end to history coincided with what he saw as a worldwide consensus that the world would now follow Friedman’s model of the Free Market. He and other neocons wanted no more discussion on the matter; and they get no more discussion in the media of the US and the UK.”

  Which is the same attitude that Mr Rentoul has on the issue of torture and human rights. It is acceptable and right because he says so and he will brook no disagreement.

• http://twitter.com/Broxted Ciaran Rehill

  We will find out what happened to Dr Kelly, WMD and the legacy of three thousand new “laws” in a century or two. This is my 1600th comment John boy, feel honoured, feel very honoured. New Scotland Yard delenda est.