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Featured Review
| Tony Judt. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. New York: Penguin. 2005. Pp. xv, 933. $20.00.
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| When the paperback edition of a book opens with three pages of media praise, the expectations of a reader are raised high indeed. Adjectives such as "brilliant," "truly superb," "masterly and exhilarating," "elegant and provocative," as well as "compelling and fluidly written" are rarely bestowed on a work of almost 900 pages. No doubt, the popular style of presentation, the knack for a telling phrase, and the authoritative manner of interpretation set a certain tone. But such qualities also tend to induce skepticism in scholars who might well ask: does the actual content justify all this hype? |
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One of the strengths of this massive overview over European development during the second half of the twentieth century is the unique background of the author, which endows him with a rare Euro-American sensibility. Born of Jewish parents from Eastern Europe, Tony Judt grew up in Great Britain and trained as a French historian. Subsequently, he moved to New York, and acquired an American following with his insightful essays in the New York Review of Books and his directorship of the Remarque Center at New York University, which he made into a transatlantic meeting place. |
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This varied experience inspires Judt to an uncommon breadth of vision that tries to encompass Europe as a whole. In contrast to the Western provincialism of much American scholarship, he fearlessly strikes out to Eastern Europe, thereby obliterating the Cold War barrier. He has a particular fondness for some smaller countries like Belgium or neglected cases like Italy but also comments competently on more remote places like Hungary, Czechoslovakia, or Poland. This broad perspective transcends the conventional divide between victors and vanquished, sometimes to its own peril. Thus the book presents a fuller and more complex account than other surveys of the postwar period. |
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Another appealing feature is the problem-centered approach that emphasizes developments cutting across political frontiers. This moves the presentation beyond a traditional juxtaposition of parallel national histories and opens up comparative possibilities which enrich the discussion of overarching problems. Even if nation states remain the most frequent unit of narration and analysis, Judt's approach puts his book in tune with the current discussion on "transnational history." As a result, broader patterns can emerge that emphasize common challenges as well as different national responses. |
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Judt's ideological commitments lie clearly on the Left, sympathizing with intellectual projects to provide a better life for the masses. Nonetheless, the author is unabashedly anti-Stalinist, mincing no words about the repressive features of Soviet-style communism. At home in the various Western Marxist debates, he treats the transition from Old to New Left with an insider's sense of disillusionment in the failure of Socialist aspirations. Therefore he remains rather ambivalent about the cultural revolution of 1968 and becomes quite caustic when dealing with postmodernism, decrying cultural studies as "narcissistic obscurantism" (p. 481). |
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These characteristics make for a number of strengths that justify some of the accolades. Unlike the mere recounting of textbooks, this synthesis addresses a central question: namely, the shattering impact of World War II on the half-century that followed. In contrast to the disastrous consequences of the less drastic effect of World War I, the book seeks to explain the more benign results of the greater suffering the second time around. If 1918 led to civil war and revolution, why did 1945 restore stability? Looking at the long-term consequences, its temporal scope not only extends to the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989 but also covers the subsequent travails of the postcommunist transition. |
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