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kieranhealy's review against another edition
5.0
History is a tricky thing, more so than many realize. The facts we know may turn out to be shades of truth, or outright lies. One of the jobs of historians is to examine and decipher the past, to discover motivations and to interpret them to others. To attempt this for an entire continent is a task I would have considered insane. Instead, Tony Judt created a masterpiece of historical literature with Postwar. But it is a dense, comprehensive masterpiece. Judt goes through over half a century of history for an entire continent, made of wildly disparate countries and cultures, and deftly covers the changes from multiple angles and for every country. Never before have I read so complex a topic, and never again do I suspect that it will be dispensed in such a coherent, readable way.
The difficulty with this book is not in the reading, or prose, or organization. It is that the sheer volume of information comes so properly done, that it was nearly too much to comprehend. Judt is not just telling the history, but unpacking and re-examining it. There are constant revelations through the book, page after page. I would have to put the book down for a week, just to let all that information soak in from a single chapter (or section of a chapter). I also found it relatively free of bias, and where it showed up, Judt makes strong arguments that, while I am certainly in no capacity to counter, were strong and convincing. Written in 2005, 5 years before his death, and Judt had already seen the writing on the wall for today's political climate in the United States, Britain, and their relationship with the EU. Remarkable.
It is an insane amount of information, but it will be a book I refer to again and again. Quite easily one of the best books I've ever read. Even though, off and on, it took me a year.
The difficulty with this book is not in the reading, or prose, or organization. It is that the sheer volume of information comes so properly done, that it was nearly too much to comprehend. Judt is not just telling the history, but unpacking and re-examining it. There are constant revelations through the book, page after page. I would have to put the book down for a week, just to let all that information soak in from a single chapter (or section of a chapter). I also found it relatively free of bias, and where it showed up, Judt makes strong arguments that, while I am certainly in no capacity to counter, were strong and convincing. Written in 2005, 5 years before his death, and Judt had already seen the writing on the wall for today's political climate in the United States, Britain, and their relationship with the EU. Remarkable.
It is an insane amount of information, but it will be a book I refer to again and again. Quite easily one of the best books I've ever read. Even though, off and on, it took me a year.
haraldg's review against another edition
4.0
This 900 page book is a great achievment. Tony Judt writes best on the countries he knows best: France, Britain and Czechoslovakia. The recurring theme is the communist takeover of eastern Europe came about and how left wing politicians and intellectuals debated how to find a middle ground between the US and Soviet models of society.
fakk3uzi's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
5.0
Es un compendio espectacular y lleno de referencias que ayuda a comprender mucho mejor la situación actual de Europa
cuddlygryphon's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
alexiconic's review against another edition
right now, it’s not a priority — i don’t have the time for this commitment. will revisit bc so far it was impressively good.