Tony Judt

Un apasionado llamamiento a resucitar los valores colectivos y el compromiso político. Hay algo profundamente erróneo en la forma en que vivimos hoy. El estilo egoísta de la vida contemporánea, que nos resulta 'natural', y también la retórica que lo acompaña (una admiración acrítica hacia los mercados no regulados, el desprecio por el sector público, la ilusión del crecimiento infinito) se remonta tan sólo a la década de los ochenta. En los últimos treinta años hemos hecho una virtud de la búsqueda del beneficio material hasta el punto de que eso es todo lo que queda de nuestro sentido de un propósito colectivo. '¿Por qué nos hemos apresurado tanto en derribar los diques que laboriosamente levantaron nuestros predecesores? ¿Tan seguros estamos de que no se avecinan inundaciones? ', se pregunta Judt, uno de los más importantes pensadores contemporáneos. Rechazando tanto el individualismo extremo de la derecha como la desacreditada pose retórica de la izquierda, Judt nos desafía a oponernos a los males de nuestra sociedad y a afrontar nuestra responsabilidad sobre el mundo en que vivimos. Algo va mal es un inestimable obsequio para las futuras generaciones de ciudadanos comprometidos. Expresión concentrada de las preocupaciones de toda una vida, este libro pasará a formar parte de los grandes textos políticos de nuestra era. 'Un valeroso manifiesto: una declaración de principios progresistas, una vindicación de la legitimidad de lo público y de lo universal como valores de la izquierda.' Antonio Muñoz Molina

<h3>Product Description</h3><p><strong>A gift to the next generation of engaged citizens, from one of our most celebrated intellectuals. </strong> <br /></p><p>As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America-the guarantee of security, stability, and fairness-is no longer guaranteed; in fact, it's no longer part of the common discourse. Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, offers the language we need to address our common needs, rejecting the nihilistic individualism of the far Right and the debunked socialism of the past. In reintroducing alternatives to the status quo, Judt invigorates our political conversation, furnishing the tools necessary to imagine a new form of governance and a better way of life. </p><h3>About the Author</h3><p><strong>Tony Judt</strong> was born in 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 dedicated to the study of Europe and which he founded in 1995. The author or editor of twelve books, he is a frequent contributor to <em>The New York Review of Books</em>, the <em>Times Literary Supplement, The New Republic, The New York Times</em> and many other journals in Europe and the US. Professor Judt is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Permanent Fellow of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Vienna). He is the author of <em>Reappraisals: Reflections On The Forgotten Twentieth Century</em> and <em>Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945</em>, which was one of the <em>New York Times Book Review</em>’s Ten Best Books of 2005, the winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. </p>

Swept up in the vortex of communism, French postwar intellectuals developed a blind spot to Stalinist tyranny. Albert Camus, who had been an authentic moral voice of the Resistance, pretended not to know about the crimes and terrors of the Soviet Union. Jean-Paul Sartre perverted logic to make an apologia for the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Simone de Beauvoir called for social change to be brought about in a single convulsion, or else not at all. Foolish French thinkers, suffering self-imposed moral anesthesia, defended the credibility of the show trials in Stalinized Eastern Europe. In a devastating study, Judt, a professor of European studies at New York University, argues that the belief system of postwar intellectuals, propped up by faith in communism, reflected fatal weaknesses in French culture such as the fragility of the liberal tradition and the penchant for grand theory. He also strips away the postwar myth that the small, fighting French Resistance was assisted by the mass of the nation.

**Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize •** **Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award •** **One of the** **** New York Times* *' Ten Best Books of the Year** ** ** **“Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” **—The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. *Postwar* is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, *Postwar* is a rare joy. 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. ### Review “Judt's massive, learned, brilliantly detailed account of Europe's recovery from the wreckage of World War II presents a whole continent in panorama even as it sets off detonations on almost every page.” —The New York Times Book Review “Remarkable . . . The writing is vivid; the coverage-of little countries as well as of great ones-is virtually superhuman; and above all, the book is smart. Every page contains unexpected data, or a fresh observation, or a familar observation freshly turned.” — **Louis Menand,** The New Yorker * *“Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” — The Wall Street Journal * *“Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” — The Boston Globe * *“Brave and remakable.” — The Washington Post * *“Brilliant . . . A book that has the pace of a thriller and the scope of an encyclopedia . . . A very considerable achievement.” — The New York Review of Books “Not likely to be surpassed for many years. . . . This is history writing at its best.” —Publishers Weekly **(starred review)** ### About the Author **Tony Judt** was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies at New York University, as well as the founder and director of the Remarque Institute, dedicated to creating an ongoing conversation between Europe and the United States. He was educated at King’s College, Cambridge, and the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and also taught at Cambridge, Oxford, and Berkeley. Professor Judt was a frequent contributor to *The New York Review of Books* , *The Times Literary Supplement* , *The New Republic* , *The New York Times* , and many journals across Europe and the United States. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including *Thinking the Twentieth Century* , *The Memory Chalet* , *Ill Fares the Land* , *Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century* , and *Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945* , which was one of *The New York Times Book Review* ’s Ten Best Books of 2005, the winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He died in August 2010 at the age of sixty-two.

From one of our greatest historians and public intellectuals, reflections on a twentieth century that is turning into ancient history, when it's not being displaced by myth or forgotten entirely, with unprecedented speed and at great cost The accelerating changes of the past generation have been accompanied by a comparably accelerated amnesia. The twentieth century has become history at an unprecedented rate. The world of 2007 is so utterly unlike that of even 1987, much less any earlier time, that we have lost touch with our immediate past even before we have begun to make sense of it. In less than a generation, the headlong advance of globalization, with the geographical shifts of emphasis and influence it brings in its wake, has altered the structures of thought that had been essentially unchanged since the European industrial revolution. Quite literally, we don't know where we came from. The results have proved calamitous thus far, with the prospect of far worse. We have lost touch with a century of social thought and socially motivated social activism. We no longer know how to discuss such concepts and have forgotten the role once played by intellectuals in debating, transmitting, and defending the ideas that shaped their time. In Reappraisals, Tony Judt resurrects the key aspects of the world we have lost in order to remind us how important they still are to us now and to our hopes for the future. Reappraisals draws provocative connections between a dazzling range of subjects, from the history of the neglect and recovery of the Holocaust and the challenge of evil in the understanding of the European past to the rise and fall of the state in public affairs and thedisplacement of history by heritage. With his trademark acuity and lan, Tony Judt takes us beyond what we think we know to show us how we came to know it and reveals how many aspects of our history have been sacrificed in the triumph of mythmaking over understanding, collective identity over truth, and denial over memory. His book is a road map back to the historical sense we so vitally need.

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.

Using the lives of the three outstanding French intellectuals of the twentieth century, renowned historian Tony Judt offers a unique look at how intellectuals can ignore political pressures and demonstrate a heroic commitment to personal integrity and moral responsibility unfettered by the difficult political exigencies of their time. Through the prism of the lives of Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron, Judt examines pivotal issues in the history of contemporary French society—antisemitism and the dilemma of Jewish identity, political and moral idealism in public life, the Marxist moment in French thought, the traumas of decolonization, the disaffection of the intelligentsia, and the insidious quarrels rending Right and Left. Judt focuses particularly on Blum's leadership of the Popular Front and his stern defiance of the Vichy governments, on Camus's part in the Resistance and Algerian War, and on Aron's cultural commentary and opposition to the facile acceptance by many French intellectuals of communism's utopian promise. Severely maligned by powerful critics and rivals, each of these exemplary figures stood fast in their principles and eventually won some measure of personal and public redemption. Judt constructs a compelling portrait of modern French intellectual life and politics. He challenges the conventional account of the role of intellectuals precisely because they mattered in France, because they could shape public opinion and influence policy. In Blum, Camus, and Aron, Judt finds three very different men who did not simply play the role, but evinced a courage and a responsibility in public life that far outshone their contemporaries. "An eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility."—Richard Bernstein, *New York Times* ### Amazon.com Review Intellectuals, virtually by definition, are expected to think for themselves. But the spectacle of intellectuals subordinating their independence of mind to dogmatic ideologies, whether left or right, is dismayingly common in the 20th century. The French call it *la trahison des clercs*. In *The Burden of Responsibility* , Tony Judt discusses three inspiring French intellectuals--Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron--who courageously lived up to their political, moral, and intellectual responsibilities. Their courage, Judt notes, is all the more impressive since they were all outsiders: Blum and Aron were Jews, while Camus was reared and educated in Algeria, far from the training grounds of the French intelligentsia. The longest, and arguably most exciting, chapter is devoted to Blum, whose efforts against extremists on the Left and the Right are truly remarkable. As the moral center of the Socialist Party, Blum was instrumental in keeping it independent of Moscow. When France fell in 1940, the Vichy government put him on trial, but he defended himself so adroitly that the German authorities, fearing embarrassment, ended the proceedings abruptly; subsequently, Blum survived two years in Buchenwald and Dachau, serving briefly as prime minister after the war. The chapter on Camus is, understandably, less dramatic, even despite his work in the Resistance; the chapter on Aron, best known for his work on the philosophy of history, is positively anticlimactic. Nevertheless, Judt's juxtaposition of these three intellectuals provides enlightenment not only about modern French history but also about the role of the responsible intellectual in society. *\--Glenn Branch* \- 本段文字指該書籍為絕版或為不可用版本。 ### From Publishers Weekly New York University European studies professor Judt (Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944-1956) fashioned this book from three lectures he gave at the University of Chicago that presented an overview of some of the more complex political currents of modern France. He starts with a much vilified figure of the 1930s who is now largely ignored?the first Jewish (and Socialist) French premier, Leon Blum. Judt argues?not entirely convincingly?that Blum was more of a politician and less of an esthete than is generally thought. After Blum, Judt turns to a nemesis of the 1968 generation, the French conservative Raymond Aron. While Judt's discussion of individuals' changing fortunes provides an interesting view of the French intelligentsia, he overstates matters when he claims that Aron was universally accepted in France at the time of his death. In a somewhat less original contribution, Judt discusses the familiar figure of Albert Camus, apparently because he serves as a chronological link between the other two. Naturally, the brushstrokes are very broad in these brief studies, and many of Judt's assertions, particularly those that speculate about motive, are open to argument (Does anyone else think that Camus' journals are "funny"?). Since full-length studies of Blum and Aron are still awaiting translation from the French, these opinionated lectures serve as a useful incentive to read further on their subjects. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. - 本段文字指該書籍為絕版或為不可用版本。 ### From Library Journal In these essays, originally lectures at the University of Chicago, Judt (European studies, NYU) accuses French intellectuals of "moral irresponsibility"?as he did in his earlier Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 (LJ 10/1/92). Once again, he expresses his conviction that French intellectuals failed to lead their country culturally and politically from the pre-World War II years through the mid-1970s. Here, however, Judt presents the antidote to his earlier book, examining the lives of Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron. What set them apart from other intellectuals was the way they looked beyond the political pressures of the day to take moral stands on issues that included anti-Semitism, decolonization, ideological and political quarrels, communism, and socialism. These three figures stood courageously by their views, guided by moral integrity and personal responsibility, and eventually gained some redemption in the eyes of the public. Highly recommended for large public and academic libraries.?Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. - 本段文字指該書籍為絕版或為不可用版本。 ### From Kirkus Reviews Approaching French intellectual history from a novel perspective, Judt (European Studies/New York Univ.; Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 19441956, not reviewed) focuses on three leading 20th-century figures who had the courage to disagree with political sensibilities that prevailed among their contemporaries. Leon Blum, the leader of the French Socialist party and prime minister in the interim government of December 1946, is remembered mainly for introducing a 40-hour work week, wage increases, and paid vacation. His actual contribution to French political thought, however, went far beyond mere social reform. Blum was one of the first to warn French communists against the dangers of Bolshevik-style dictatorial terror. A literary critic, jurist, and politician, Blum was ``a mirror held up to his country,'' reflecting many of its strengths and weaknesses. Judt's second subject, Albert Camus, shared Blum's anti-Stalinist conviction and took every opportunity to debunk revolutionary myths. In contrast to radical intellectuals of the postwar period, Camus opted to defend absolute values in an age of relativism and emphasized the ethical dimension of contemporary dilemmas. A native of Algeria, Camus opposed the independence of his homeland, advancing instead an idea of an integrated Arab-European community. Finally, Raymond Aron, an existential philosopher, journalist, and member of the academic elite, echoed Blum and Camus in his polemic against the French intelligentsia's Marxist leaning and in his firm opposition to Soviet totalitarianism. While Aron did not recognize any moral debt owed by the French to Arabs, he promoted Algerian independence for the sake of order and stability in France itself. A realist above all, Aron angered many Europeans by suggesting that a stable, democratic Germany reconstituted on equal footing within the European community was the best guarantee of security on the continent. This story of three solitary thinkers provides remarkable insight into the tensions that underlie political, philosophical, and ideological currents in contemporary France. -- *Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.* \- 本段文字指該書籍為絕版或為不可用版本。 ### Review ...[an] elegantly difficult, eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility.... a morally lucid and penetrating book, the product of long and deep thinking, and it contains many arresting passages. -- *The New York Times* *, Richard Bernstein* Mr. Judt is right to praise Blum, Camus and Aron for their willingness to denounce communism. But the essays here go beyond that issue to reveal other divisions in French intellectual culture. What is more, the book is beautifully written and often moving.... a rich and honorable book. -- *The Wall Street Journal* *, Stanley Hoffmann* One cannot say that this is a book about "the French 20th century." It is about two decades of that century, an admirable account and also an excellent introduction for those coming to the subject, complete with "further readings." -- *The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review* *, William Pfaff* \- 本段文字指該書籍為絕版或為不可用版本。 ### About the Author **Tony Judt** is the University Professor of European History at New York University and the author of several books, most recently, *Postwar: A History of* *Europe* *Since 1945*. - 這些文字涉及到 paperback 版本。

<h3>Amazon.com Review</h3><p><strong>Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010</strong>: In 2008 Tony Judt, the historian and essayist whose book <em>Postwar</em> was quickly recognized as one of the landmark works of our time, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was soon almost fully paralyzed, but before his death in the summer of 2010 he managed to produce not only two works of political and intellectual history, <em>Ill Fares the Land</em> and the upcoming <em>Thinking the Twentieth Century</em>, but also a series of short essays that had a breathtaking reception when they appeared, a few at a time, in the <em>New York Review of Books</em>. The pieces were remarkable both for their content and their method of composition: isolated at night in the prison of his paralysis, Judt would sort through his memories, arranging them, to better remember them, in the "rooms" of a Swiss chalet he recalled from an idyllic childhood visit, before dictating them in the morning to be published. The essays are at times political but always personal, calling up memories of food, youth, sex, education, train travel, and other subjects with a clarity and intensity born of both his historian's skills of observation and judgment and the heightened awareness of time's passage imposed by his undeniable mortality. Collected now in <em>The Memory Chalet</em>, these reflections make up a memoir that evokes, with clear-eyed passion, the life of the mind, as well as the body. <em>--Tom Nissley</em><br /></p><h3>From Bookmarks Magazine</h3><p>“Loss is loss,” Judt writes, “and nothing is gained by calling it a nicer name.” Many of these chronological essays written while Judt struggled with ALS first appeared in the <em>New York Review of Books</em>, but taken together, they offer an astute portrait of a life cut short—but one also fully, richly lived. Judt writes with the same incisive intellectual clarity and polished writing of his other books, here evoking specific experiences formative to his childhood and intellectual growth. Yet, as critics point out, <em>The Memory Chalet </em>is no typical memoir. Instead, it goes well beyond personal, self-driven recollections to ruminate on the larger importance of Judt’s experiences. In the end, “perhaps <em>The Memory Chalet </em>isn’t an uplifting work,” concludes the <em>Denver Post</em>. “It is better than that: It is a sustaining one.” </p>

**A great thinker's final testament: a characteristically wise and forthright collection of essays from the author of *Postwar* and *Thinking the Twentieth Century* , spanning a career of extraordinary intellectual engagement. Edited and introduced by Jennifer Homans.** Tony Judt’s first collection of essays, *Reappraisals* , was centred on twentieth-century Europe in history and memory. Some of Judt’s most prominent and indeed controversial essays felt outside of the scope of *Reappraisals* , most notably his writings on the state of Israel and its relationship to Palestine. There would be time, it was thought, to fit these essays into a larger frame. Sadly, this would not be the case, at least during the author’s own life. Now, in *When the Facts Change* , Tony Judt’s widow and fellow historian, Jennifer Homans, has found the frame, gathering together important essays from the span of Judt’s career that chronicle both the evolution of his thought and the remarkable consistency of his passionate engagement and intellectual élan. Whether the subject is the scholarly poverty of the new social history, the willful blindness of French collective memory about what happened to the country’s Jews during World War II, or the moral challenge to Israel of the so-called Palestinian problem, the majesty of Tony Judt’s work lies in his combination of unsparing honesty, intellectual brilliance, and ethical clarity. *When the Facts Change* exemplifies the utility, indeed the necessity, of minding our history and not letting cheerful fictions suffice in its place. An emphatic demonstration of the power of a great historian to connect us more deeply to the world as it was, as it is, and as it should be, it is a fitting capstone to an extraordinary body of work. **