In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir
Francis Fukuyama discusses *In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir*, his personal and intellectual journey through five transformative decades and the political questions that have shaped his work. In conversation with Laura K. Field, he traces his path from Cornell’s circle of students around conservative thinker Allan Bloom to the RAND Corporation, the U.S. State Department, and encounters with figures including Muammar Qaddafi and China’s political elite.
The memoir also explores Fukuyama’s family history, including the World War II internment of relatives and other Japanese Americans, as well as his public break with the neoconservative movement over the Iraq invasion. He connects these experiences to ideas central to his scholarship, including recognition, thymos, trust, identity, human nature, institutions, liberalism, democracy, and the “Last Man,” framing his life story as a history of the political upheavals affecting democracy and liberalism over the past half-century.
When: Saturday, September 12, 2026
Showtimes: 3:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
Format: Francis Fukuyama in conversation with Laura K. Field; a livestream option is also listed on the event page.
Tickets: Free admission, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Featured speaker: Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has taught at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and George Mason University, worked as a RAND Corporation researcher, and served as deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff. His books include *Liberalism and Its Discontents*, *Identity*, *Political Order and Political Decay*, *The Origins of Political Order*, *The End of History and the Last Man*, *Trust*, and *America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy*.
Conversation partner: Laura K. Field is Scholar in Residence at the Niskanen Center in Washington, DC. Trained as a political theorist, she holds a PhD in government from the University of Texas at Austin and has taught at Rhodes College, Georgetown University, and American University. Her writing has appeared in *The New Republic*, *Politico*, *The Bulwark*, *Le Monde*, *The New York Times*, and *The Atlantic*. Her book *Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right* is published by Princeton University Press.
Accessibility: Accommodation and accessibility requests should be sent to events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The organizers will try to accommodate requests made up to the event time.
Age guidance: Not specified.
Run time: Not specified.