Tony Judt

"Ideas crackle" in this triumphant final book of Tony Judt, taking readers on "a wild ride through the ideological currents and shoals of 20th century thought." (Los Angeles Times)One of our most brilliant historians, Tony Judt brings the past century vividly to life in this unprecedented and original history. Structured as a series of intimate conversations between Judt and his friend and fellow historian Timothy Snyder, Thinking the Twentieth Century presents the triumphs and the failures of the twentieth century's most prominent intellectuals and their ideas, guiding readers through the debates that defined our world. Spanning an era with unprecedented clarity and insight, Thinking the Twentieth Century is a tour de force: a masterful analysis of the life of the mind and an unforgettable guide to leading the mindful life.

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year Final reflections on a happy life-from acclaimed historian Tony Judt.Tony Judt's The Memory Chalet is a memoir unlike any other. Each essay brings the smallest details of personal experience into the larger frame of history. Judt's youthful love of a London bus route becomes a reflection on public civility. Food and trains and smells all come alive as Judt takes us from the postwar London of his childhood through Paris, Prague, and points east to New York, where he found his home. Judt brings his moral clarity and wit to bear on everything from fast cars to radical politics and, finally, the devastating illness that took his life. This book, composed when Judt was paralyzed and unable physically to write, found its shape in the ordered rooms of a Swiss Chalet of the mind: a warm refuge in the closing darkness of his final years. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Argues that we have entered an 'age of forgetting', where we have set aside our immediate past before we could even begin to make sense of it. It examines the tragedy of twentieth-century Europe by way of thought-provoking pieces on Hannah Arendt, Edward Said, Albert Camus and Henry Kissinger amongst others.

"Tsja knizhka je istorichnoju rozvidkoju, biografijeju ta etichnim traktatom", - vvazhaje odin iz jiji spivavtoriv amerikanskij istorik Timoti Snajder. U fokusi jogo rozmov iz Toni Dzhadtom - "istorija suchasnikh politichnikh idej u Jevropi ta Spoluchenikh Shtatakh; vlada i spravedlivist u rozuminni liberalnikh, sotsialistichnikh, komunistichnikh, natsionalistichnikh i fashistskikh intelektualiv vid kintsja XIX do pochatku XXI stolit". Na dumku Timoti Snajdera, odnimi iz najvazhlivishikh u jikhnikh rozmovakh iz Toni Dzhadtom stali "rozdumi pro obmezhennja (i zdatnist do vidrodzhennja) politichnikh idej, a takozh pro moralni porazki (i obov'jazki) intelektualiv u polititsi". Vodnochas "Rozdumi pro KHKh stolittja" - tse takozh i biografija istorika j esejista Toni Dzhadta, jakij narodivsja v Londoni v seredini XX stolittja, pislja kataklizmiv Drugoji svitovoji vijni ta Golokostu, u chas, koli komunisti utverdzhuvali vladu u Skhidnij Jevropi.

Tsja knizhka prisvjachena navchalnim momentam, vtratam, podijam i osobistostjam minulogo stolittja, jaki zaslugovujut na bilshe, nizh proste zabuttja. Vona skladajetsja z ese, napisanikh istorikom ta intelektualom Toni Dzhadtom protjagom dvanadtsjati rokiv. TSi tvori okhopljujut riznomanitni temi - vid frantsuzkikh marksistiv do amerikanskoji zovnishnoji politiki, vid globalizatsijnoji ekonomiki do pam'jati pro zlochini. Jikhnja geografija okhopljuje shirokij spektr - vid Belgiji do Izrajilju.Avtor vmilo pereplitaje istorichni fakti, privertaje uvagu do tem, jaki chasto zalishalisja u tini, pid tiskom arkhiviv abo zabuttja. Vin sponukaje chitachiv glibshe zanuritisja u rozuminnja istoriji, pereosmisliti jiji, schob bez vikrivlen sprijmati minule i suchasne.

"Shale pam'jati" - tse memuari, ne skhozhi na bud-jaki inshi. Kozhen esej vnosit najmenshi podrobitsi osobistogo dosvidu v bilshi ramki istoriji. Jizha, pojizdi ta zapakhi ozhivajut, koli Dzhadt vede nas z povojennogo Londona svogo ditinstva cherez Parizh, Pragu j potrapljaje do Nju-Jorka, de vin i znajshov svij dim.Zavdjaki moralnij chistoti ta prirodnij dotepnosti Dzhadtu vdajetsja pojednati v sobi vse - vid zakhoplennja avtoperegonami do radikalnoji politiki i, nareshti, nischivnoji khvorobi, jaka, vlasne, i zabrala jogo zhittja.Tsja kniga stvorena todi, koli Dzhadt uzhe buv paralizovanij i fizichno ne mig pisati, prote vona postala nenache v zatishku starikh pridorozhnikh goteliv - jak ostannij teplij pritulok u temrjavi ostannikh rokiv.

“More than any other technical design or social institution, the railway stands for modernity.” In this brilliant essay the historian Tony Judt describes the singular contribution made by railways to the development of our shared way of life. From the transformation of urban spaces to the reorganisation of our sense of time, it is impossible to imagine the world we live in without the social and economic changes wrought by rail travel: no other mode of transport can represent with such potency “risk, opportunity, uncertainty, novelty, and change: life itself.”Eris Gems make available in the form of beautifully produced saddle-stitched booklets a series of outstanding short works of fiction and non-fiction.

"Pislja vijni" - persha suchasna istorija, jaka okhopljuje vsju Jevropu, jak Skhidnu, tak i Zakhidnu.U nij doslidzheno shist mov, schob provesti chitachiv cherez tridtsjat chotiri natsiji i shistdesjat rokiv politichnikh i kulturnikh zmin - i vse tse v odnij integrovanij, zakhoplivij opovidi. Tse intelektualno-ambitna knizhka, scho vrazhaje svojim masshtabom i vod-nochas dribnimi podrobitsjami. Avtor prisvjativ majzhe desjatilittja tomu, schob napisati jiji.Toni Dzhadt - naukovij spivrobitnik Amerikanskoji akademiji mistetstv i nauk, Korolivskogo istorichnogo tovaristva ta Institutu nauk pro ljudinu. Vikladav u Kembridzhskomu, Oksfordskomu ta Nju-Jorkskomu universitetakh, a takozh u Berkli.

"When the facts change, I change my mind--what do you do, sir?" A great thinker's final testament: a characteristically wise and forthright collection of essays spanning a career of extraordinary intellectual engagement "In an era of growing anti-intellectualism, Judt's] essays remind us of what we gain when we stick fast to high ethical and intellectual standards, and what is lost when we let them slip." --Mark Mazower, Financial Times "Scintillating journalism." --Samuel Moyn, The New York Times Book Review In an age in which there has been an erosion of fact-based journalism and the lack of independent public intellectuals has often been sorely lamented, Tony Judt played a rare and valuable role, bringing together history and current events, Europe and America, the world as it was and as it is with what it should be. In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of Judt's most important and influential pieces written in the last fifteen years of his life, when he found his voice in the public sphere. These seminal essays reflect the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality; Israel, the Holocaust, and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11; and issues of social inclusion and social justice in a time of increasing inequality. Judt believed his real job was not to say what wasn't but to say what was--to tell a convincing, clear story from available evidence, and to do it with a view of what was right and what was just. This was not only a duty, but a moral responsiblity for Judt and When the Facts Change is a testament to his legacy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

The author's first collection of essays, Reappraisals, was centred on twentieth-century Europe in history and memory. In this book, his widow and fellow historian, gathers together important essays from the span of his career that chronicle both the evolution of his thought and the consistency of his passionate engagement and intellectual elan.

Denis Lacorne identifies two competing narratives defining the American identity. The first narrative, derived from the philosophy of the Enlightenment, is essentially secular. Associated with the Founding Fathers and reflected in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers, this line of reasoning is predicated on separating religion from politics to preserve political freedom from an overpowering church. Prominent thinkers such as Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Jean-Nicolas Demeunier, who viewed the American project as a radical attempt to create a new regime free from religion and the weight of ancient history, embraced this American effort to establish a genuine "wall of separation" between church and state. The second narrative is based on the premise that religion is a fundamental part of the American identity and emphasizes the importance of the original settlement of America by New England Puritans. This alternative vision was elaborated by Whig politicians and Romantic historians in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is still shared by modern political scientists such as Samuel Huntington. These thinkers insist America possesses a core, stable "Creed" mixing Protestant and republican values. Lacorne outlines the role of religion in the making of these narratives and examines, against this backdrop, how key historians, philosophers, novelists, and intellectuals situate religion in American politics.

Two explorers set out on a journey from which only one of them will return. Their unknown land is that often fearsome continent we call the 20th Century. Their route is through their own minds and memories. Thinking the Twentieth Century is about the life of the mind - and the mindful life.

I oktober 2009 höll Tony Judt ett föredrag­ om välfärdssamhällets och social­demo­kratins framtid som åhörarna aldrig kommer att glömma. Det som gjorde intryck var inte bara det ange­lägna ämnet och talarens glöd, utan också ­omständigheterna. Den tidigare så fysiskt vitale historikern­ satt nämligen i rullstol, förlamad från halsen och nedåt och med en stor andningsapparat för ansiktet. Gensvaret var enormt och efteråt uppmanades Tony Judt att utveckla det han sagt till en bok. Från sin sjukbädd dikterade han sedan boken Illa far landet, en passionerad uppgörelse med det som enligt honom är kännetecknande för vår tid: ­materialismen och egennyttan, den okritiska beundran av marknaden, dyrkan av den privata sektorn, föraktet för den offentliga sektorn, de växande klyftorna mellan rika och fattiga, de falska föreställningarna om en gränslös tillväxt. Men Illa far landet är också en nutidshistorisk lektion och ett konstruktivt förslag på vad som bör göras för att lösa de stora problem våra länder brottas med. Med sin skepsis mot identitetspolitik och enfrågerörelser,­ och med sin tro på ­kollektivt tänkande och en utvidgad roll för staten i ­samhällets organisering, utmanar Tony Judt ­före­ställningar till både vänster och höger. OM FÖRFATTAREN Tony Judt (1948-2010) föddes i London och utbildades vid King's College i Cambridge och École Normale Supérieure i Paris. Han undervisade vid Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley och New York University, där han ledde Remarque Institute, ett centrum för Europa-studier som grundades av honom. Under sin levnad utgav Tony Judt tretton böcker, bland annat Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 som nominerades till Pulitzerpriset. Han medverkade regelbundet i New York Review of Books, London Review of Books och New York Times. År 2007 belönades han med Hannah Arendt Prize och år 2009 med Orwell Prize. 2011 utgav Karneval även Tony Judts memoarbok Minneshärbärget. FRÅN MOTTAGANDET I SVERIGE "En rasande uppgörelse med en ekonomistisk samtid, men också med en socialdemokrati som förlorat kraft, röst och självförtroende - Illa far landet­ är en sällsynt skarp beskrivning av vår samtid. Den gör också något så ovanligt och uppfordrande som att föreslå att samhället skulle kunna se annorlunda ut." Marika Lindgren Åsbrink i Tiden "Jag stryker under, viker hörn, sätter utropstecken och läser högt för omgivningen. Det var länge sen jag kände mig så upplyft av en så svidande samhällskritik som den som serveras av Tony Judt." Liv Beckström i ­Kommunalarbetaren "Boken är rena citatsamlingen. Men allra starkast är uppfordran att åter börja tala om andra värden än de ekonomiska, för att på så sätt påminna om vad Staten var bra för. Det är som om det förflutna talar genom Judt, för att för­bereda oss på att ta itu med fram­tiden igen." John Swedenmark i LO-Tidningen "Illa far landet blev genast omdiskuterad bland Europas vilsna socialdemokrater. Men bör läsas av alla. Hans civilisationskritik är härlig; skarpa formuleringar, historisk kunskap och ett eftertryckligt försvar för grå, kompromissökande social­demokrati; för Väst­europas lyckliga decennier, som råkar sammanfalla med hans eget liv och minnes­arbetet i nattmörkret, men nu på väg att förskingras och upp­lösas i 'individualitetens stoft och damm'. Illa far landet är en varning att inte glömma." Per Wirtén i Expressen "Judt lyckas göra socialdemokratins historia oväntat underhållande, delvis för att han är en fantastisk satiriker. Dagens allra mest hopplösa social­demokrater och nyliberaler har försett honom med först­klassigt stoff. De breda och djupa kunskaperna om efterkrigs­tidens historia imponerar." Ola Wihlke i Dalarnas Tidning "Styrkan ligger i det historiska siktdjupet. Man får syn på hur kollektivt handlande för det gemensamma bästa, inte hysteriska privatiseringar, vitaliserar och stabili­serar skakiga klassamhällen. Och hur snabbt framsteg kan raseras och tanken somna in. Jag hoppas att Illa far landet blir läst och diskuterad långt utanför den krympande social­demokratins krets. Gärna av tokliberaler, terrorister och bank­direktörer." Jan Eklund i DN "Judt har, tror jag, en poäng när han hävdar att vi nu måste börja intressera oss för staten igen. Vad ska den göra? Och vad ska den inte göra? Som liberal är jag rent principiellt mest intresserad av den senare frågan. Men jag kan inte släppa Judts frågor­ kring konsekvenserna av en alltför naken stat: Vad händer med ett samhälle där staten bara förknippas med över­vakning, repression och brandkårsutryckningar för att lösa ut ­banker som hamnat på gäld­stugan?" Per Svensson i Sydsvenskan "Socialdemokratin lyckades ska­pa­ ett anständigt samhälle, men i dag tycks inte ens social­demokraterna själva minnas vad de en gång tog sig för. Judt är historikern vars sista uppgift var att försöka få oss att minnas ett unikt samhällsbygge medan det vittrar sönder. Kanske kan Illa far landet bli den teoretiska grundtext som vänstersocial­demokraterna alltid tycks ha saknat?" Daniel Suhonen i Aftonbladet "Ett bra sätt att medvetandegöra sig om vad alliansregeringen håller på med är att läsa Tony Judts bok Illa far landet ... Sådana som Reagan och Thatcher (och Fredrik Reinfeldt) förväxlar frihet att tjäna pengar med frihet, vilket leder till ojämlikhet, fattigdom och cynism. Dessa politiker, skriver han, 'känner stolthet över att vara tillräckligt hårda för att tillfoga andra smärta'. En bra beskrivning av dagens allians- regering! Jag skäms för dem, men själva är de stolta över plågor de åsamkat de mest utsatta." Maria-Pia Boëthius i ETC

It might be thought the height of poor taste to ascribe good fortune to a healthy man with a young family struck down at the age of sixty by an incurable degenerative disorder from which he must shortly die.

Denis Lacorne identifies two competing narratives defining the American identity. The first narrative, derived from the philosophy of the Enlightenment, is essentially secular. Associated with the Founding Fathers and reflected in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers, this line of reasoning is predicated on separating religion from politics to preserve political freedom from an overpowering church. Prominent thinkers such as Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Jean-Nicolas Demeunier, who viewed the American project as a radical attempt to create a new regime free from religion and the weight of ancient history, embraced this American effort to establish a genuine "wall of separation" between church and state. The second narrative is based on the premise that religion is a fundamental part of the American identity and emphasizes the importance of the original settlement of America by New England Puritans. This alternative vision was elaborated by Whig politicians and Romantic historians in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is still shared by modern political scientists such as Samuel Huntington. These thinkers insist America possesses a core, stable "Creed" mixing Protestant and republican values. Lacorne outlines the role of religion in the making of these narratives and examines, against this backdrop, how key historians, philosophers, novelists, and intellectuals situate religion in American politics.

Tony Judt considers the question: How likely is a united Europe? "I am enthusiastically European; no informed person could seriously wish to return to the embattled, mutually antagonistic circle of suspicious and introverted nations that was the European continent in the quite recent past. But it is one thing to think an outcome desirable, quite another to suppose it is possible. It is my contention that a truly united Europe is sufficiently unlikely for it to be unwise and self-defeating to insist upon it. I am thus, I suppose, a Euro-pessimist." —Tony Judt

Departing from the usual emphasis on an urban and industrial context for the rise of socialism, Socialism in Provence 1871-1914 offers instead a reinterpretation of the early years of Marxist socialism in France among the peasantry. By focusing on a limited period and a particular region, Judt provides an account both of the character of political behavior in the countryside and of the history of left-wing politics in France.

Tony Judt provides a sharp and intellectual ideological description of mid-twentieth century French intellectuals "Past Imperfect is a forthright and uncommonly damning study of those intellectually volatile years [1944-1956]. Mr. Judt…does more than simply describe the ideological acrobats of his subjects; he is a sharp, even a vindictive moralist who indicts these intellectuals for their inhumanity in failing to test their political thought against political reality."—John Sturrock, New York Times Book Review

Unlike most books, which treat labor, Socialist and Communist history separately and view French Marxism as a self-contained philosophical phenomenon, Marxism and the French Left offers a refreshingly different approach to the subject. Judt emphasizes the complex and interwoven themes that unify the topics of his essays to construct a distinctive and original interpretation of French left-wing politics over the past 150 years. "A well-informed and persuasive reinterpretation of the old French Left that is now receding beyond recall, except for historians."—Times Literary Supplement