Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
Published: 29/01/2015
ISBN: 9781473505216
Length: 400 Pages
RRP: £25.00
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.
Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
Published: 29/01/2015
ISBN: 9781473505216
Length: 400 Pages
RRP: £25.00
Jennifer Homans, Judt’s widow … sets the tone with her perfectly pitched introduction … discussing Marx or the Marx brothers, the EU or UN, the Middle East or the social function of railways, Judt’s range and clarity are magisterial ... This is a welcome addition to Judt's oeuvre.
His fierce intellect, erudition and a willingness to engage in controversy means that these essays have stood the test of time.
This posthumous collection ... covers not just his specialist subjects, France and Israel, btu also technology and transport, post-9/11 America and the intertwining of social democracy and capitalism. What underpins them all is a moral engagement with the topic and an overview of history as a malleable entity.
A historian of rare subtlety and foresight ... Tony Judt was not only a great historian, he was also a great essayist and commentator on international politics ... The logic of his arguments, bolstered by a profusion of historical comparisons and moral reflections, make it hard to disagree with a word he wrote … All of Judt’s essays are written in good faith. They do not exaggerate or distort and, despite provocation, do not descend into cynicism or vitriol … I urge you to read this book.
For a man who died more than four years ago, Tony Judt remains remarkably prolific. During his lifetime he built a well-deserved reputation as one of the most combative, clear-sighted and illuminating historians of his generation… I am a Judt fan. In my view, almost everything he wrote, from his early books on the French Left in the mid-20th century to his piercing essays in the New York Review of Books, was distinguished by a remarkable acuity, honesty and intellectual insight.