POSTWAR

Tony Judt was educated at Kings College Cambridge and the cole Normale Supęrieure Paris and taught at Cambridge Oxford and Berkeley. He was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies at New York University: in addition to Director of the Remarque Institute which is dedicated to the study of Europe and which he founded in 1995. The author or editor of fourteen books 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 other journals in Europe and the US. Professor Judt is the author of 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 Reviews 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 sixtytwo.FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER AWARD A magisterial and acclaimed history of postwar Europe from Germany to Poland from Western Europe to Eastern Europe selected as one of New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year Europe in 1945 was drained. Much of the continent was devastated by war mass slaughter bombing and chaos. Large areas of Eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control exchanging one despotism for another. Today the Soviet Union is no more and the democracies of the European Union reach as far as the borders of Russia itself. Postwar tells the rich and complex story of how we got from there to here demystifying Europes recent history and identity of what the continent is and has been.śIt is hard to imagine how a better and more readable history of the emergence of todays Europe from the ashes of 1945 could ever be writtenAll in all a real masterpiece Ian Kershaw author of HitlerMost impressive... Postwar Tony Judts magnificent history of Europe after The Second World War covers vast tracts of ground with extraordinary skill weaving together the stories of West and East in a single compelling narrativeMasterly and exhilarating... Judt has a fine eye for telling detail... This is a splendid book to which no review can do proper justiceTruly superb a magnificent achievement. It is hard to imagine how a better and more readable history of the emergence of todays Europe from the ashes of 1945 could ever be written: I cant think of another work on the latter half of the 20th century that comes close to matching it... All in all a real masterpieceA superb work of synthesis analysis and reflectionWith Postwar... Judt moves up into the ranks of the grand simplificateurs. He dares to expound the sum total of Europe since 1945 in a seamless narrative... This is historywriting with a human face as well as with brainpower... It is most unlikely that Judts achievement will be superseded soon