Does History "stop", "start", and "accelerate"?

Résumé du document

The fall of the Berlin wall symbolized the end of communism, and the victory of liberal democracy. The suddenness, with which the soviet empire collapsed without any resistance, reinforced the idea that democracy was going to triumph all over the globe. In the controversial article "The End of History", Fukuyama introduced his thesis that all the societies were moving toward peace, prosperity and freedom, and that democracy was unanimously going to be considered the most reliable system, especially after the manifestation of what both fascism and Stalinism were capable of. He opined that: "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". It was thus predicted that except for some regional issues, the world was going to remain indefinitely a liberal democratic system with capitalism, and the entire world would live under an international order, where human rights would be stronger than the use of force, and would respect the people's will. Following the Hegelian definition of History, which argues that "Human History must be seen not only as a succession of accomplishments, but more importantly as a succession of different form of consciousness", Fukuyama wrote about "the possibility that History might be at an end?. It is indeed debatable if history can said to be continuing in the absence of changes.

Extraits

[...] Eric Hobsbawm even refutes completely Fukuyama's thesis: only completely certain generalization about History is that, so long as there is a human race, it will go . Some historians, such as Alexis de Tocqueville, argued that History repeats itself over and over. “History is a gallery of pictures in which there are many copies” . Thus, during the early 1990s, some questions that worried Eastern Europe between the two World Wars came back: nationalism claims. Indeed, the end of communism generated the repetition of some previous conflicts, which had been inhibited by the soviet regimes. [...]

[...] But this period definitely showed that History does sometimes accelerate. History does sometimes start, stop and accelerate, fashioned by many major events, which definitely engender changes in the societies. The 20th century was not the end of History. Nevertheless, we 3 could argue that the continuity of the terrorist attacks in the late years symbolised the refusal of Western ideology, and to a certain extent, of globalisation. Even though it is too early to truly analyse what will be the consequences of those actions, there is no doubt that we have definitely entered a new era. [...]

[...] Vinen even talked about a “History in Fragments” . Those eras are separated by major turning points, such as the French Revolution, or the First World War. Although each generation facing a radical event tries to get rid of every aspect of its former era, the next period will by all means be strongly influenced by its elder. Nevertheless, there is a risk of limiting History solely to the biggest conflicts, doing a “purely narrative événementielle approach” . We must not forget that the Industrial Revolution was itself a major turning point as well. [...]

[...] Does History stop start and accelerate ? Does History and “accelerate”? The fall of the Berlin wall symbolised the end of communism, and the victory of liberal democracy. The suddenness with which the soviet empire collapsed, without any resistance, authorised the idea that democracy was going to triumph all over the globe. Fukuyama exposed in a very controversial article End of History” , his thesis arguing that all the societies were moving toward peace, prosperity and freedom, given that without any competition, democracy was going to be considered as the most reliable system, especially after the manifestation of what both fascism and Stalinism were capable of. [...]

[...] Indeed, the period between 1989, the end of the 20th century, and 2001, the beginning of the 21st has been very quiet compared to preceding events. But what happened during this intermediate era of thirteen years? Would it be considered to be a gap in History, as an empty period? We could argue that History slowed down, but this period followed a really intensive era in international History. “However, there can be no serious doubt that in the late 1980s and early 1990s an era in world History ended and a new one began [ . [...]