What does it mean to proclaim 'the end of history'? Francis Fukuyama created a considerable stir in 1992 by claiming that the fall of communism and the triumph of free market liberalism brought an 'end of history' as we know it. Prominent among his critics has been the French philosopher Jacques Derrida, whose Specters of Marx (1993) deconstructed the concept of 'the end of history' as an ideological confidence trick, in an effort to salvage the unfinished and ongoing project of democracy. Derrida and the End of History places Derrida's claim within the context of 'endist' thought, and highlights one of his most valuable contributions to the postmodern cultural debate. His critique also makes an accessible entry to his enigmatic but fascinating strategy of 'deconstruction'.