Thinking the Twentieth Century: Intellectuals and Politics in the Twentieth Century [Hardcover]

I wish to clarify that 'moraliste' is how the historian author Tony Judt describes himself in the book. The French word is both more embracing than its English equivalent and quite lacking the implied pejorative nuance. The French call their greatest writers, from Montaigne to Camus, 'moralistes'. These French writers are far more likely than their Anglo - American counterparts to inform their work with explicit ethical engagement.

Tony Judt is a graceful, erudite author. His writing is informed by his English education, he read French history at King's College, Cambridge, his French education at Ecole Normal Superieure, and his Eastern European Jewishness; though born in London, his grandparents were Polish Jews. But I have to clarify that though informed by the preceding still his writing transcends them and acquires a genuine universality. The book bears similarity with'The Memory Chalet' in their autobiographical dimension but similarities end there with the present book the distinctly more consummate work.

The book is a spoken book. The author was afflicted in 2008 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disorder that brings progressive paralysis and certain and usually rapid death. Only his brain remained intact and retained its crystalline clarity.

The book began at the prompting of Timothy Snyder, a Yale historian, twenty - one years junior than the author and with complementary expertise. Though born in the United States, Timothy Snyder went to Oxford and undertook a doctorate in Polish history - he acquired facility in the languages of East - Central Europe and familiarity with the country and the history of the region. The book has a gratifyingly rich presence of East European intellectuals and historians.

The book was the result of a series of conversations of Timothy Snyder with the author which were recorded and transcribed. Timothy Snyder posed the questions or posited statements to which the author responded. The resulting work is impressive in its scope, ideas, subtlety and the number of intellectuals, historians, writers, politicians, and economists that parade in it.

The book is history, biography, and ethical treatise. It is a history of modern political ideas in Europe and the United States. Its subjects are power and justice, as understood by liberal, socialist, communist, nationalist and fascist intellectuals from the late nineteenth through the early twenty - first century. It is also a contemplation of the limitations (and capacity for renewal) of political ideas and of moral failures (and duties) of intellectuals in politics.

The book offered me an intense intellectual stimulation and gratification.

This book is a mix of memoires and a critical introduction to 20th C. history. As a historian specializing in contemporary issues, he brings a unique perspective to the major political problems that we have faced in our lifetimes, reviewing them for the basics but also adding his unique interpretation. Indeed, as a "major" in international relations in France, I studied every single issue that he covers in this wonderfully interesting and challenging book.

Starting off in a working class family, Judt outlines how he got into Cambridge, entering an intellectual elite that he never left. It was a combination of brains and extremely hard work, plus a bit of luck in the teachers who encouraged him. He laments that the path that led him to Cambridge is rapidly vanishing as the power of money and privilege is renewing itself as he was writing.

As I see it, there are 3 large issues that he attacked during his career. First, there was the French intellectual tradition, starting in about the 1930s and up to the 1980s. That was the era of Sartre, Camus, and Aron, men that I studied as a student in Paris. Though I have long since left them behind, it was an absolute delight to get his read on them, a journey that I made in a far less scholarly way than he. Second, starting as a young Zionist, he recapitulates his long journey from ardent Kibbutzim to the disillusioned critic, who saw Israel as a colonial power of questionable legitimacy. Agree with him or not, the case he makes - based on personal experience as a participant in the 1967 war that transformed Israel from a defensive power to an aggressively militaristic one - deserves consideration. Third, he covered the communist idea, from its origins in the 19C up to its end and the aftermath in Eastern Europe. This went beyond what had occurred during my studies and so was a great eye opener for me, truly new content that created an agenda of study that I wil undertake over the next decade. Again, an intellectual delight.

Throughout the book, Judt offers details from his personal life, which paralleled his intellectual undertakings. It is a candid and self-critical view, from his divorces to the environment at the New York Review of Books that opened new vistas for him as a writer. He even took up Czech in his mid-30s, to complete his study of the collapse of communism. He is wonderfully candid, to the point that I am not sure I would have liked to work with the man. For example, he cheerfully admits that New York University - his career home base - is mediocre. He also calls Thomas Friedman of the NYT "execrable" as a thinker, which I admit is exactly how I perceive him. Judt was a difficult guy, never wastes time on false modesty, and displays a refreshingly biting cynicism about the pretentions of his milieu. Now that is fun!

The book was written as a kind of dialogue with another historian. I can't say that I particularly liked this style, but it offers a very fun overview of a life's work. The co-author is no sycophant, but he doesn't add much in my view and occasionally disrupts the unity of voice. While rigorous, it also lacks the tightness of a fully academic work, offering generalizations rather than a finely honed original thesis.

Recommended as an introduction to a great thinker and a delightful summary of a life's work. Judt will be missed.

'Thinking the Twentieth Century' is the best book on European history to appear for many years. Its genesis is unusual. When Tony Judt realized he was dying, he engaged in a series of conversations with Timothy Snyder. This book is the outcome. Timothy Snyder prompts and Tony Judt conducts a course on recent European history, with a little American history thrown in for good measure. In the process, Tony Judt gives a far more detailed autobiography than we got in 'The Memory Chalet.'
Overwhelmingly, it is a book about ideas and their influence. Almost every page contains new insights into some of the most written-about events in history. (My only reservation is that the book presupposes that the reader is familiar not only with events but the ideas of figures such as Hayek, and Koestler.) That such a book was produced by a man gravely ill with a degenerative disease is a triumph of the human spirit.