I have just come off my annual Jane Austen binge and am now reading The End of History and The Last Man by Fukyama. It is a very thought provoking book and I will have to re-read much of it as I find it very complex in places. However, it does make one take a long look at the concept of liberal democracy and why so many people aspire to it as a national state of being.
   I have also re read North and South by Mrs. Gaskell and find an amazng parralell between it and the Fukyama book, although they are a hundred years apart and one is non fiction and the other a novel.
    I am always pleased when someone reactivates this thread..lots of interesting opinions and many suggestions for good reads. Thanks all.