Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

849

Date

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Political Science

Committee Chair

Sharon Stanley

Committee Member

Matthias Kaelberer

Committee Member

Nicole Detraz

Abstract

The struggle for recognition, this, so Hegel tells us, is the driving force behind history, and once this desired recognition is achieved then humanity will have finally fulfilled the end of history. In the twentieth century there were two famous proclamations that this goal had been achieved. In what follows, however, I argue that the end of history is not attained through some final state that provides recognition to its citizens universally, as Hegel and his interpreters imagine, but rather it is the condition created by states competing to provide that recognition. By looking at the way in which the United States and the Soviet Union interacted during the Cold War, I will show that the fulfillment of Hegel’s historical mission through the state becomes unfathomable thanks to the development of nuclear weaponry and the logic of MADness—making history history.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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