| Postwar : A History of Europe Since 1945 | 
 enlarge | Author: Tony Judt
Publisher: Penguin Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 365856
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Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 896
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.7
ASIN: B000GUJHIA
Publication Date: October 6, 2005
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Amazon.com
World War II may have ended in 1945, but according to historian Tony Judt, the conflict's epilogue lasted for nearly the rest of the century. Calling 1945-1989 "an interim age," Judt examines what happened on each side of the Iron Curtain, with the West nervously inching forward while the East endured the "peace of the prison yard" until the fall of Communism in 1989 signaled their chance to progress. Though he proposes no grand, overarching theory of the postwar period, Judt's massive work covers the broad strokes as well as the fine details of the years 1945 to 2005. No one book (even at nearly a thousand pages) could fully encompass this complex period, but Postwar comes close, and is impressive for its scope, synthesis, clarity, and narrative cohesion. Judt treats the entire continent as a whole, providing equal coverage of social changes, economic forces, and cultural shifts in western and eastern Europe. He offers a county-by-county analysis of how each Eastern nation shed Communism and traces the rise of the European Union, looking at what it represents both economically and ideologically. Along with the dealings between European nations, he also covers Europe's conflicted relationship with the United States, which learned much different lessons from World War II than did Europe. In particular, he studies the success of the Marshall Plan and the way the West both appreciated and resented the help, for acceptance of it reminded them of their diminished place in the world. No impartial observer, Judt offers his judgments and opinions throughout the book in an attempt to instruct as well as inform. If a moral lesson is to come from World War II, Judt writes, "then it will have to be taught afresh with each passing generation. 'European Union' may be an answer to history, but it can never be a substitute." This book would be an excellent place to start that lesson. --Shawn Carkonen
Product Description
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-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the worlds 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 changeall 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.
* A Time and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
* Maps, photos, and cartoons throughout
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 Anti-Jewish Author beware Christians and Jews! August 20, 2008
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Like another reviewer has mentioned this man, professor at the university of New York is an outspoken denier of the right of Israel to exist as a nation.
Read Caroline Glick's latest book for more info.
Christians, Jews, don't buy into this man's propaganda.
 Nothing short of brilliant August 17, 2008
In this long and detailed resection of Europe post World War II, Judt has finally put all the little pieces that led to "modern Europe" into place and, more importantly, into perspective. Not since Barbara Tuchman carefully negotiated events has anyone made such a profound effort to help us understand where we are now by retracing the path to the present.
A Book around Which to Build a History Course August 3, 2008
There is every reason to believe that Tony Judt's magisterial survey of the history of Europe since World War II will endure as a chronicle of those times. This is a book through which light shines as it does through the stained glass windows of Chartres.
"Postwar" is animated throughout by the diligence of research, by a refusal to accept unexamined propositions, and by an extraordinary balance between strategic perspective and the intimacy of shared anecdotes in some smoky coffee house. The large moments of postwar European history are recounted in lapidary detail: Budapest 1956; Berlin 1961; Prague (and Paris) 1968; Karol Wojtyla in Poland in 1979; the transformations of 1989. So too are small moments and the granularity of details that are part of the world's often imperfect understanding of Europe: bad British cars; the atrophying of Spanish villages; the homogenization of many European elites; Euro Pop and football.
From Solidarity to Monty Python; from Charles deGaulle to the Greek colonels -- the many tiles in the mosaic of postwar European history (and the intersection between that history and the subcontinent's many cultures) are painstakingly assembled by Tony Judt into a story that leaves a reader deep in thought and a desire to learn more.
As his narrative closes in on the present, Judt probes the evolving phenomenon of "European" identity. What will it mean for the place of Europe in the shared destiny of the West? What will it mean for a sense of "Europe" in relation to its constituent nation-states, and for the cultural and national identities encompassed by the borders of those nation-states? What will it mean for Europeans fortunate enough to possess wealth, education, and engagement with commerce and ideas? What will it mean for those Europeans who do not, and for the subcontinent's dispossessed, and for its growing non-European minorities?
Like the best histories, this book matches learned and often original insights with exceptional storytelling, and regular insertions of acerbic wit. To my fellow American readers, perhaps this explanation will suffice: the story of late 20th and early 21st Century Europe now has its Shelby Foote.
 Long, descriptive, then Partisan July 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Somewhat balanced view of Europe from 1945-1979. At times Judt schizophrenically jumps from Europhile to Europhobe. It is good to see someone neither completely sold on nor completely against European integration.
Like all "history" of rather recent times, it is tough to divorce his views from historical analysis. His reasonably objective analysis of Europe falls apart in 1979. He jumps the Left-Right divide into partisan politics. Everything the center-left does in European politics is merely for short-term gain; everything the center-right (and even the Right of Le Pen) does is correct analysis of the situation. He openly states that New Labour's correct policies are only work because of what Thatcher did. Judt has absolutely no love for Mitterrand, who in Judt's view is nothing more than a political opportunist. The footnotes themselves could have been taken from the Michael Moore playbook - not from an historical writing!
His epilogue is some spot on analysis. He rejects the inevitability of a "wider, deeper union" based on the fact that cultural differences exist and that the EU will have to continue to work at as opposed to just letting it take its course. Yet, the founder of the inevitability doctrine ("neofunctionalism") - Ernst B. Haas - determined that 40 years ago; maybe it's good to be reminded that political integration takes work.
I would not say this is a must read for anybody and the footnotes with pot shots at Blair, Mitterrand and others from the center-left detract from the objectivity of the work.
Just where is "Europe"? March 9, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I won't add my opinion to the cacophony of voices on either side of the Tony Judt issue. I actually think that there are some accurate viewpoints expressed in the 5 star reviews as well as in the 1 star ones. I would only like to point out to future readers that, if they are expecting a history of Europe since 1945, as the subtitle promises, they will be disappointed.
Like many anglocentric historians, Judt seems to think that Europe consists of England, France and Germany, with a little bit of Russia thrown in whenever the Russians are making trouble for the former three. Why else, in a 800+ page book, could he spare only a very few pages on Spain, Portugal and Greece? His explanation that they are on the "fringes" of Europe does not seem to apply to Italy, also a Mediterranean country separated from the rest of Europe by mountains.
O.K., Spain and Portugal were living in their own world for much of this period, with little interaction with the rest of Europe. But does that mean that their history should be ignored, especially since their isolation was largely imposed by the rest of Europe and the US as punishment for their reluctance to take part in the rest of Europe's mass insanity during WWII? And do not Spain's and Portugal's transition to democracy deserve a more careful analysis, especially since it was accomplished without the destruction that Germany delivered to it's neighbors in making the same journey? Apparently Jundt thinks not.
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