Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

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Penguin, Sep 5, 2006 - History - 960 pages
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.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
PostWar 19451953
11
The Legacy of War
13
Retribution
41
The Rehabilitation of Europe
63
The Impossible Settlement
100
The Coming of the Cold War
129
Into the Whirlwind
165
Recessional 19711989
451
Diminished Expectations
453
Politics in a New Key
484
A Time of Transition
504
The New Realism
535
The Power of the Powerless
559
The End of the Old Order
585
After the Fall 19892005
635

Culture Wars
197
CODA The End of Old Europe
226
Prosperity and Its Discontents 19531971
239
The Politics of Stability
241
Lost Illusions
278
The Age of Affluence
324
The Social Democratic Moment
360
The Spectre of Revolution
390
The End of the Affair
422
A Fissile Continent
637
The Reckoning
665
The Old Europeand the New
701
The Varieties of Europe
749
Europe as a Way of Life
777
An Essay on Modern European Memory
803
Suggestions for Further Reading
835
Index
879
Copyright

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About the author (2006)

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 BooksThe Times Literary Supplement, The New RepublicThe 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 CenturyThe Memory ChaletIll Fares the LandReappraisals: 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.

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