The Origins of Political Order: A Conversation

Thursday, April 21, 2011
01:11:47
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Episode Summary
How did tribal order and society evolve into the political institutions of today? Drawing on a vast body of knowledge-- two celebrated scholars discuss the origins of democratic societies and raise essential questions about the nature of politics.

Participant(s) Bio
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is the author of The End of History and the Last of Man, Trust, and America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy.

Jared Diamond, professor of Geography at UCLA, is the author of The Third Chimpanzee, Guns Germs, and Steel, Why Is Sex Fun?, Collapse, and Natural Experiments of History, among others. A recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, he is recognized for the breadth of his interests, which include research specialties in laboratory physiology, biogeography of New Guinea birds, and environmental history. His books have been translated into over 38 languages.


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