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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
This took the author 15 years to write, and I’m quite certain the same amount passed during my reading.
My shoddy brain can’t fathom the amount of research that went into something like this. Normally history books read as a collection of dates and events briefly explained, and within days I could provide, at best, a breakdown equivalent to that of a 7th grader who just did their history title page.
This book was different. Somehow the narrative makes total sense, flows beautifully, and avoids listing (for the most part) facts, stats, and dates ad nauseam. Which seems impossible when you’re trying to provide a narrative tying together 25+ countries over 60+ years.
If you’ve read this far, congrats you’ve read about as much text as this tome I’m reviewing. Sorry. Word of advice, don’t read this book unless you’re a complete sicko or happen to have zero responsibility and perfect weather for two months.
My shoddy brain can’t fathom the amount of research that went into something like this. Normally history books read as a collection of dates and events briefly explained, and within days I could provide, at best, a breakdown equivalent to that of a 7th grader who just did their history title page.
This book was different. Somehow the narrative makes total sense, flows beautifully, and avoids listing (for the most part) facts, stats, and dates ad nauseam. Which seems impossible when you’re trying to provide a narrative tying together 25+ countries over 60+ years.
If you’ve read this far, congrats you’ve read about as much text as this tome I’m reviewing. Sorry. Word of advice, don’t read this book unless you’re a complete sicko or happen to have zero responsibility and perfect weather for two months.
Insanely in depth, maybe too in depth? It is so detailed that an enthusiastic would get all their questions answered I feel like
Enlightening. Very fact-heavy (I made a ton of Kindle notes that may be hard to organize into any usefulness) yet does a decent job of conveying the depth of chaos in the immediate post-war period that is hard for those removed from the war by two generations to fully imagine.
I have an enormous number of notes for this very long book, but they are mostly things I thought were interesting, and I don't know if I'll ever put them here. The book itself is simply a history, an extraordinarily well-written one, though, and one that overuses the phrase "make a virtue of necessity" and the word "penumbra." It is not a history focused on people or anectdotes, and hardly has anything that would have it depart from the analytical mode. There is a bit of balkanization; some of the chapters or sections are essays-about something, where that something isn't just the geographical areas in question during the years in question--which is fine; that would be unwieldly, it just had an academic resonance, and can sometimes make elisions glare. (But now as I write that, maybe all big-book histories are like that? How embarrassing...) In such a long book, I'm sure there are counter-examples to what I've just said, but I suspect also that they are few. (It is a male history, the kind of male Judt mentions being in The Memory Chalet, with his spatial capabilities and his father's love of cars.)
This being my third Judt in a row, there are certain recurrences, and in fact I can't remember what's in what, but it doesn't matter. I say all of that only in defense of my view that I liked this book very much, but it did not blow my mind. But then, it wasn't trying to.
This being my third Judt in a row, there are certain recurrences, and in fact I can't remember what's in what, but it doesn't matter. I say all of that only in defense of my view that I liked this book very much, but it did not blow my mind. But then, it wasn't trying to.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 is a masterful and sweeping account of the continent’s transformation in the aftermath of World War II. Combining deep historical insight with a compelling narrative, it delivers one of the most definitive works on modern European history yet written.
She’s a beast of a book, but she’s good. You cannot deny that when someone commits a decade and 900 pages to studying one thing that it will not be good. Tony may have ended his story in 2005, but Lord knows we are still dealing with the repercussions of 1989 nearly 20 years later. Necessary reading for foreign policy buffs.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Took me almost 3 months to finish this one. It’s a commitment! However, it’s very illuminating and I feel like I just took a semester on European history
Greatest slog ever; I learned a billion things. The breadth of his writing is awe-inspiring.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Postwar Europe is, expectedly, complex and rife with social and political events that have deep histories which continue to impact not only the continent but the entire world. As an American, it's easy to only be given the bigger picture of the history of the rest of the world, so it's ever more important to learn more about the world and why some of what has happened. At nearly 1000 pages, I'm certainly not going to remember everything that was written in this book, but I can at least say that the back of my mind has a good foundation in the histories of European countries, and that my continual journey of education can be bolstered by that background. Still, it's definitely a well-written account of extremely important history that, perhaps with the right person reading and learning from this, can prevent atrocities from repeating themselves.
If you're looking for a good place to start learning about European history, this is an excellent place to start. Obviously there's much more of the world than just Europe, so let me know if there's any other well-written comprehensive histories of other parts of the world.
If you're looking for a good place to start learning about European history, this is an excellent place to start. Obviously there's much more of the world than just Europe, so let me know if there's any other well-written comprehensive histories of other parts of the world.
Excellent history of postwar Europe. Judt manages to provide fascinating insights on just about every page.