Among the “gems of insight” to be found in this collection of lectures is the “glinting intelligence” of thinkers such as such as American political philosopher Dr Francis Fukuyama, whose lecture in 2014, posited “a string of sparkly ideas”. For example, he theorised that the first modern state, formed through unremitting military competition, was invented in China – 1,800 years before Europe. The reviewer wrote, “The interest in this book lies not only in such ideas, but also in how proclamations of the past are viewed through the lens of the present. Dr Fukuyama, who famously and falsely proclaimed ‘The End of History’ in the 1990s, with the apparent triumph of Western liberal democracy, ironically comes across as fresh as a daisy.”