Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

967 Pages·2005·18.93 MB·English

by  Tony Judt

P O S T W AR
A History of E u r o pe S i n ce 1945
T O NY J U DT
U.S. $39.95
THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF
POSTWAR EUROPE FOR OUR TIME
Tony Judt's Postwar is cause for celebration. The
product of a decade's labor, it is sweeping narrative
history in the grand tradition, a deeply learned and
absorbing chronicle of Europe since the fall of Berlin,
weaving East and West, North and South, into a
majestic sixty-year tapestry studded with brilliant
new insight.
Tony Judt has drawn on forty years of reading
and writing about modern Europe to craft this
account of the continent's remarkable journey—
tumultuous and uneven—out of the devastation of
history's most savage war. While his range is vast, and
seemingly no country, no vital theme, no crucial indi­
vidual, no watershed event fails to get its moment
in the narrative sun, Postwar is the very opposite
of the dutiful plod. Ajiimated and propelled by the
celebrated force of its author's point of view, it is
never less than brilliant. Witty, opinionated and full
of fresh and surprising stories and asides, visually
rich and rewarding, with useful and provocative
maps, photos and cartoons, Postwar is a rare joy
for lovers of history and lovers of Europe alike, a
show from which one exits, dazzled, into the present
moment, with much mental furniture rearranged,
if not smashed into kindling, and all of Europe
indelibly in mind.
WITH 9 MAPS AND 77 PHOTOGRAPHS
1005
T O NY JUDTwasbomin
London in 1948. He was educated at King's College,
Cambridge, and the École Normale Supérieure, Paris,
and has taught at Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley and
New York University, where he is currently the Erich
Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies and
Director of the Remarque Institute, which is dedi­
cated to the study of Europe and that he founded
in 1995. The author or editor of eleven books, he is
a frequent contributor to The New York Review of
Books, the Times Literary Supplement, The New
Republic, The New York Times and many other
journals in Europe and the United States.
Jacket design by Dean Nicastro
Jacket photograph © Werner BischojyMagnum Photos
Author photograph © John R. Rifkin
Yh~ THE PENGUIN PRESS
e
— :— A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Jengutn 375 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y. 10014
Press www.penguin.com
Advance Praise for
P O S T W AR
"Tony Judt is one of our most dazzling public intellectuals, as thoughtful as he is
knowledgeable. Postwar is like having an extended personal seminar on Europe's
journey back both from the ashes of World War Two and the cruel, totalitarian hold
of Soviet communism."
—DAVID HALBERSTAM
"Professor Judt knows more about contemporary Europe than almost any Ameri­
can (or any European, for that matter). In Postwar, he brings that formidable
knowledge to bear on the mspiring story of Europe's transformation from lethal
division and devastating war to a peaceful, prosperous pancontinental union. His
history of how the iron curtain crumbled is definitive.''
—T. R. R E I D, author of The United States of Europe
"Truly superb. It is hard to imagine how a better—and more readable—history of
the emergence of today's Europe from the ashes of 1945 could ever be written."
—IAN KERSHAW
"An epically important subject has, to the benefit of us all, found the author it
deserves. Tony Judt, long one of the wisest heads and clearest voices around,
has produced a magisterial history and a solid foundation for clear thinking about
the future. Postwar is meticulous in its scholarship, compelling in the story it tells
and passionate in its judgments. A true masterpiece."
—STROBE TALBOTT, President, Brookings Institution
ISBN 1-59*20-065-3
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ALSO BY TONY JUDT
The Politics of Retribution in Europe
(with Jan Gross and István Deák)
The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron,
and the French Twentieth Century
Language, Nation and State: Identity Politics in a Multilingual Age
(edited with Denis Lacorne)
With Us or Against Us: Studies in Global Anti-Americanism
(edited with Denis Lacorne)
A Grand Illusion? An Essay on Europe
Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956
Marxism and the French Left: Studies on Labour
and Politics in France 1830-1982
Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe 1939-1948
(edited by Tony Judt)
Socialism in Provence 1871-1914:
A Study in the Origins of the Modern French Left
La reconstruction du Parti Socialiste 1921-1926