Nichols examines the major writings of Alexandre Kojève, and clarifies the character and brings to light the importance of his political philosophy. While emphasizing the political dimension of Kojève's thought, Nichols treats all his major published writings and shows how the remarkably varied parts of Kojève's intellectual endeavor go together. This is an essential assessment of Kojève which considers the works that preceded his turn to Hegel, seeks to articulate the character of his Hegelianism, and reflects in detail on the two different meanings that the end of history had in two different periods of his thought.

James H. Nichols is professor of Political Science at Claremont McKenna College. He has translated Kojève's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, and is the author of various works including Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De rerum natura of Lucretius