Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review
Almost a decade in the making , this much-anti... read full description
Almost a decade in the making , this much-anti... read full description
reviews
Feb 05, 2009
The unassuming, almost provocatively direct title belies an almost 1,000-page exhaustive survey of European history since the end of World War II. Yet this book isn't meant just to look impressive on the bookshelf; Judt is an astute thinker and polished writer who brings extensive cultural knowledge about film, music, and literature to bear on his daunting subjects: the Holocaust, the Stalinized East, the tide-changing 1960s, the implosion of the Iron Curtain, the policies of the European Union,
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 08, 2010
Chris
rated it: 
This is history writ large done to perfection. Judt has compressed a lifetime of study and exploration of European cultural memes into this masterwork, one which abounds with erudition, penetrating analysis, and wise reflection. Judt states in his introduction that he hoped to produce a work that might compare favorably with that of the historians he had read and enjoyed, such as Eric Hosbsbawn. Speaking as one who has read the latter's brilliant tetralogy that runs from the French Revolution to
More...
5 comments
like
(8 people liked it)
Nov 01, 2010
Michael
rated it:
I have often referred to this book as a great act of hubris and an uncommon realization of the author's ambition. The sheer audacity in enclosing a continent's history over 60 years in one spine is staggering and only pales in comparison to the striking amount of detail and context Judt provides his readers. In many ways Postwar is the ultimate starting point for anyone who seeks to enhance their postwar history chops, in other ways Judt provides a perfect condensation of thousands of postwar
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jan 13, 2012
Kim
rated it: 
This book covers a lot of ground and does so in an overall interesting fashion. Some parts involve a lot of names, dates, numbers, and percentages (particularly the beginning) and are a little dry, but most of the book relates post war Europe in an accessible way and reveals many political/social interrelationships that were not well known to me. It took nearly a solid month of reading as the opportunitiy arose to get through this book and some parts (the numbers!) I didn't retain as well as I m
More...
Aug 08, 2011
Juan-Pablo
rated it:
This is an ambitious book. It's also an impassioned account of the last 60 years of European History. Judt discloses in his Introduction that his is an "opinionated" book, and that's what I usually expect from a good history book. Historians that shield themselves in objectivity display boring and usually uninteresting accounts. The most impressive feature (and related to the former) of this work are its insights. One of the reviews says that there are insights in almost every (of the
More...
Apr 14, 2011
Denerick
rated it:
The late Tony Judt has written a fantastic book here. A testament to the historian's aspiration to the status of literature. While adopting a broadly chronological approach to 60 years of European history (going right up to the Iraq war and beyond!) he embraces social, economic and cultural arguments that buttress what is still essentially a history of personalities - something I think that is lacking in modern historical scholarship. Usually its one or the other - that personality shapes histor
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 18, 2010
Geoffrey
rated it:
Judt gives such a thorough, vivid, coherent rendering of events that these years that I felt that I was reading my biography where I wasn't mentioned but implied. Almost every event in the book was familiar, but not in such detail and not in such a clear relationship to other events. The utter devastation of all of continental Europe plus the terrible damage to much of England at war's end was for me but a hazy memory, filtered through all the black-and-white movies and the myths of heroic resis
More...
Sep 15, 2010
Joe
rated it:
I started to actually get upset when I realized that I was nearing the end (after all, histories can't go past the present).
This book is amazingly comprehensive and focuses on the "myths" of Europe as much as it does the history. It's case seems to be made out of what people claim about Europe, offering ways to think about history as a kinetic movement that is constantly wrestling with itself. As he quotes in the last chapter: "The essence of a nation is that all indi More...
This book is amazingly comprehensive and focuses on the "myths" of Europe as much as it does the history. It's case seems to be made out of what people claim about Europe, offering ways to think about history as a kinetic movement that is constantly wrestling with itself. As he quotes in the last chapter: "The essence of a nation is that all indi More...
Apr 19, 2011
Ilya
rated it: 
An 800-page history of Europe between 1945 and 2005, both Western and Eastern; for the Eastern European countries, how each became Communist and how it ceased to be, and how each half of the subcontinent regarded the other while they were. The basic story is familiar to all educated people, but there are plenty of fascinating details. After Solidarity went underground, the United States, encouraged by the Vatican, gave it an estimated $50 million; the Soviet Union and East Germany in turn underw
More...
Apr 02, 2011
Marks54
rated it:
I have read a lot of history books and this is a really good one - although a bit long at 830 pages. There were several specific benefits that appealed to me. 1) It is good on the immediate postwar period and how that shifted into the Cold War. 2) It is very informative on continuities between pre and post war Europe, both east and west. 3) Judt also brings up a number of areas that were not clear when they began and only became taken for granted later -- such as the acceptance of a divided G
More...
Sep 06, 2011
Anthony
rated it:
I managed to get through my entire undergraduate and graduate studies in history without having ever read a single book by Tony Judt. I have read some of his essays over the years, however, and they always struck me as a pragmatic and apolitical. Other than his controversial positions on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (which he did in public more than on the printed page), Judt, an ex-Marxist and fervent Social Democrat, is a believer in being "objective" (a term he is surprisingly c
More...
Nov 30, 2010
Matthew
rated it:
This book is filling a gap in my knowledge so large that I cannot believe I never realised it was there. It seems to touch on so many things; it delivers the events, yes, but more interestingly it jumps from political commentary to economics to aesthetic and social theory to intellectual history. It is my first book on general European history, so I can't really critique the content, except to say I feel like I've been brought a long way. Above all I think it is a political history, delving -- s
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 20, 2011
Nick
rated it:
A highly recommended history of Europe after WWII and up to the millennium. The book is even-handed and non-doctrinaire in its coverage of the Cold War and its aftermath. It's especially good on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and what has happened afterward to its many satellites. My only complaints are that in trying to cover so vast a topic the book sometimes feels rushed, as if Judt were trying to get through masses of history without adding to the already considerable weight of the b
More...
Jul 29, 2011
As the title of the book suggests, the topic is impossibly vast, complicated and subjective. The book is unlikely to hold interest of readers not somewhat familiar with WW2 and post war European history. Yet, the book quite smoothly moves from one important topic to another, one nation/region to another and one event to another to still present a reasonably continuous story with some purpose and end.
The details are many and everyone is going to be unhappy about insufficient treatment of one top More...
The details are many and everyone is going to be unhappy about insufficient treatment of one top More...
Feb 10, 2012
Publicserviceradio
rated it:
As much as I enjoyed this book, it was a relief to finish. At 1000 pages it was starting to give me back problems from carrying it round for so long. Tony Judt is a left-leaning historian and intellectual, and this is his account of Europe since 1945. The two main themes are the shadow World War II cast over the continent, and the ideological conflict between Communism and Capitalism that collapsed along with the Berlin Wall in 1989.
In this totemic history Judt covers nationality and n More...
In this totemic history Judt covers nationality and n More...
Sep 08, 2009
My sister in Italy is reading this too so I thought it would be fun to read it together. Well, it's pretty heavy sailing, the first bits are a detailed, up-to-the-minute review of just how many lives were lost. Hey, I almost started reading "Slavery By Another Name" which is about forced labor in the post-bellum South.
Anyway, he has lots of ground to cover and is an engaging writer - crisp, clear and opinionated. I've read many of Judt's essays in the NYRB, which I've alwa More...
Anyway, he has lots of ground to cover and is an engaging writer - crisp, clear and opinionated. I've read many of Judt's essays in the NYRB, which I've alwa More...
Aug 27, 2011
I didn't mean to read this. Totally an accident. I must've tripped over it or something, I don't remember. Then I was on page 100. Oops.
24 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jul 20, 2009
DB
rated it:
A very clear, understandable and enjoyable account of European history after the second world war up to the formation of the European Union. Seriously, Judt frequently made things seem so simple--Z follows Y, which of course happened because of X--that I actually begin to worry he may be taking liberties with causality. But after even just a few chapters (which--sorry for insisting--really are quite well written and fun to read) I feel my understanding of the state of things in Europe in the las
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 21, 2012
Ed
rated it:
The late Tony Judt, probably my favorite historians, great work. An extraordinary interesting, thorough and magisterial history of Europe since the Second World War. I know this period of history pretty well having lived through most of it and read quite a lot about it. But this book continually surprised me with new information, new insights and a tremendous analytical framework. Probably the best 'big history' I have read for many years, though I will also review another 19th century triumph b
More...
May 29, 2011
Lorenzo
rated it:
Ok, this is a history book.
So let's introduce it with a fact: Tony Judt made it.
Who else would have been able to condensate sixty years of European history in 831 pages finding room enough to spend a whole paragraph on the likes of the football/soccer star David Beckham? ("an English player of moderate technical gifts but an unsurpassed talent for self-promotion" etc.).
And yet this book may be called huge, grand, impressive but not great. I would say that More...
So let's introduce it with a fact: Tony Judt made it.
Who else would have been able to condensate sixty years of European history in 831 pages finding room enough to spend a whole paragraph on the likes of the football/soccer star David Beckham? ("an English player of moderate technical gifts but an unsurpassed talent for self-promotion" etc.).
And yet this book may be called huge, grand, impressive but not great. I would say that More...
Dec 23, 2009
Jc
rated it:
Judt has done a tremendous job of compiling a massive amount of research into 800+ pages of very readable history. From the end of WWII to about 2005 a lot has happened in Europe that affects the entire world, certainly it affects the US economically and politically. Unless you are already a scholar yourself of the subject, I guarantee you will learn things that surprise you. ... and, it will make you think as it changes your view of the world. The epilogue alone is more than worth the price
More...
Feb 15, 2012
Madeleine
rated it:
DONE. Done, done, done. I want a gold star.
Well. I am have been reading this book for almost as long as I've been living in Europe, and I think it is a very good book for a new European to read. There is such a massive amount to learn here -- information about everything from social welfare to pop culture to political leaders to...everything. It's hard to throw 800+ pages of important basic facts and ideas at someone and have it read to beautifully, but Judt is kind of a brilliant wr More...
Well. I am have been reading this book for almost as long as I've been living in Europe, and I think it is a very good book for a new European to read. There is such a massive amount to learn here -- information about everything from social welfare to pop culture to political leaders to...everything. It's hard to throw 800+ pages of important basic facts and ideas at someone and have it read to beautifully, but Judt is kind of a brilliant wr More...
Oct 22, 2011
Jan-Maat
rated it:
A history of Europe from 1945 up to 2005, readable, interesting and puts a lot in context.
For Judt Europe ends where North Africa, Turkey and Russia begin, everywhere in between gets some coverage. The coverage given to eastern Europe contrasts with the situation in the west - an advantage which earlier pre-1989 histories can't offer.
In retrospect the treatment of the immediate post war years stands out as particularly good - but this may be due to their inherent drama. More...
For Judt Europe ends where North Africa, Turkey and Russia begin, everywhere in between gets some coverage. The coverage given to eastern Europe contrasts with the situation in the west - an advantage which earlier pre-1989 histories can't offer.
In retrospect the treatment of the immediate post war years stands out as particularly good - but this may be due to their inherent drama. More...
May 28, 2011
Ray
rated it: 
It's probably unfair to offer any criticism of this book, since most everyone in the business describes it as the definitive history of modern Europe. But to me it was more of a textbook when I was looking for a story. It was far too detailed and far too long for me to endure, and I felt I was simply investing too much time as a casual reader. My feeling is that if you're REALLY into modern European history, it'll be a great book with interesting insights, but for the casual reader, it just m
More...
Jul 05, 2011
Jorge
rated it:
Acabei de ler a versão portuguesa do livro de Tony Judt, designada por "Pós-Guerra História da Europa desde 1945".
Trata-se dum livro relativamente extenso de cerca de 960 páginas. Considero-o apenas relativamente extenso, pois abrange 60 anos de história da Europa com uma profundidade e extensão enormes. Mesmo no caso de Portugal, sendo embora um país periférico e não participante na segunda guerra mundial, existem inúmeras citações e relatos, quer envolvendo o período anterior à More...
Trata-se dum livro relativamente extenso de cerca de 960 páginas. Considero-o apenas relativamente extenso, pois abrange 60 anos de história da Europa com uma profundidade e extensão enormes. Mesmo no caso de Portugal, sendo embora um país periférico e não participante na segunda guerra mundial, existem inúmeras citações e relatos, quer envolvendo o período anterior à More...
Nov 29, 2010
Jim
rated it:
One of the most difficult things to remember, in the early pages of Judt's magisterial history of Europe over the course of roughly 60 years (1945-2005), is that, in his introduction, Judt makes it clear that he is making an argument and presenting his history from a particular point of view. This is critical, because the closer you get to the present days, the more obvious this becomes, though it's never clear what constitutes his actual argument, or whether, in fact, he actually has an overar
More...
Apr 21, 2010
Bonnie
rated it:
I'm a history nut, but my specialty is pre-20th century. In fact, post-WWII history is my least favorite kind. I also am young enough that only the last chapter or two contained events that I saw on the news or read about in the paper. Given that, while I had a general idea of the outline of post-WWII Europe (Marshall Plan, USSR, fall of the Berlin wall, bloodshed in Bosnia/Kosovo), I discovered--to my embarassment--that a lot of this book contained material of which I was ignorant. For example,
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 20, 2008
Michael
rated it:
Postwar covers Postwar Europe and may possibly take longer to read than the 60-year period it covers. I've been trying for a year and am nudging page 250. Judt starts promisingly with tales of destruction and 40 million dead. Once these fun and games are over, he he plods through a series of Weighty Topics (economics, socialism, industrialization, etc) nation-by-nation in almost exactly the same sequence: England did this, Italy did that. His attempts to leaven the load with analysis of pop cult
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 21, 2007
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1114217.html[return][return]It is pretty impressive: a detailed account of both Western and Eastern Europe, covering in particular detail the immediate aftermath of the second world war, and then going on to survey the Cold War and post-1989 eras. In particular, I learnd a lot about the German Question - having grown up with the realities of a Federal Republic embedded in NATO and the DDR likewise in the Warsaw Pact, I had never quite appreciated the twists and turns o
More...
Oct 25, 2007
Lawrence A
rated it:
Tony Judt, a professor at New York University, has written a history of Europe since 1945 that is not only panoramic in its sweep, but intimate in its depth. The work not only looks at political developments that culminated in the fall of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries, and the transformation of Germany from the horrors of Nazism, to a divided nation, to its current status as a stable liberal parliamentary democracy, but looks at social trends, demographics, and, perhaps most impo
More...
