Emma Shortis and Chloe Ward are back, for a nostalgic but-not-uncritical take on the 1990s and what it means for today. In three instalments, they outline the ideas and the political and economic forces that set out what the 1990s would look like. They start with the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s famous prediction of the ‘end of history’ and liberal triumph, before looking at the Cold War and its – surprising – peaceful end, and the much more cautious predictions about the future made by the historian Eric Hobsbawm.
Links and references
Francis Fukuyama, ‘The End of History’, The National Interest, Summer 1989, 3-18.
Louis Menand, ‘Francis Fukuyama Postpones the End of History’, New Yorker, 27 August 2018.
Francis Fukuyama, ‘The Thing That Determines a Country’s Resistance to the Coronavirus’, The Atlantic, 30 March 2020.
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: 1914-1991, Hachette, 2020.
The Late Show – Interview with Eric Hobsbawm
‘Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in Quotes’, Guardian, 1 October 2012.
Damien Cave, ‘Vanquish the Virus? Australia and New Zealand Aim to Show the Way’, New York Times, 24 April 2020.
Credits
'Theme for Barely Getting' By' written and produced by Stuart Cullenhttp://stuartcullen.net[email protected]
Ronald Reagan speech excerpt Courtesy, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Bill Clinton speech excerpt Courtesy, William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
George H W Bush speech excerpt Courtesy, George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

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