A foreign policy expert and proponent of liberal democracy, American philosopher Francis Fukuyama (born 1952) gained wide fame for his thesis that the present time may be "the end of history."

Francis Fukuyama was born October 27, 1952, in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church and received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago. His mother, Toshiko Kawata Fukuyama, was born in Kyoto, Japan, and was the daughter of Shiro Kawata, founder of the Economics Department of Kyoto University and first president of Osaka Municipal University in Osaka, Japan. Fukuyama's childhood years were spent in New York City. In 1967 his family moved to State College, Pennsylvania, where he attended high school.

Fukuyama received his B.A. in classics in 1974 from Cornell University where he studied under Allan Bloom. After spending a year...