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bennought's review against another edition
5.0
An absolutely amazing, and incredibly thorough, examination and unraveling of Europe in the years 1945-1989. Of course, by necessity, the book actually ranges well beyond these years, particularly back to the world wars, through the disillusion of the Soviet Union, and into the early 2000s. Judt manages to provide a comprehensive general history of postwar Europe, with examples and well-thought out analysis on everything from fiscal policy to music to consumer products to historiography. Obviously a must-read for anyone interested in 20th century European history, but also a very enjoyable book for any historian. The reader also does a fantastic job, reading at a consistent and even pace that keeps the reader interested without going too fast to follow.
sureiken's review against another edition
5.0
Europe’s post-war history is a story shadowed by silences; by absence. The continent of Europe was once an intricate, interwoven tapestry of overlapping languages, religions, communities and nations. Many of its cities—particularly the smaller ones at the intersection of old and new imperial boundaries, such as Trieste, Sarajevo, Salonika, Cernovitz, Odessa or Vilna—were truly multicultural societies avant le mot, where Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims, Jews and others lived in familiar juxtaposition. We should not idealise this old Europe. What the Polish writer Tadeusz Borowski called ‘the incredible, almost comical melting-pot of peoples and nationalities sizzling dangerously in the very heart of Europe’ was periodically rent with riots, massacres and pogroms—but it was real, and it survived into living memory. Between 1914 and 1945, however, that Europe was smashed into the dust. The tidier Europe that emerged, blinking, into the second half of the twentieth century had fewer loose ends. Thanks to war, occupation, boundary adjustments, expulsions and genocide, almost everybody now lived in their own country, among their own people.
rc90041's review against another edition
5.0
Massive, staggeringly comprehensive, overwhelming, almost completely satisfying. You can't come away from the roughly thousand-page trek unchanged. You may already know a little something about the history of Europe in the postwar era, but this book will illuminate the vast, oceanic scope of what you did not know. At times, Judt's commitment to comprehensive treatment of all the corners of Europe begins to feel a bit de rigueur, as he dutifully marches through the various small states of the Eastern Bloc ("and, meanwhile, in Romania, ...."), but, when you finally reach the end (here, the weird in-between-time of post-2003-invasion-of-Iraq, the United States of Europe feeling its oats -- and its continuing relative impotence, Derrida and Habermas lashing out at Bush and Cheney in Le Monde), you feel as if you have a firm foothold on what happened during the sweeping changes that overtook Europe after the war, the rise of socialist democracy, the commitment to bind Europe together for the coming century, the blood-brother pact taken between France and Germany in coal and steel, the determination to stamp out the fires in the Balkans, the understanding of a new role as an ally and sometimes counterweight to the juggernaut across the Atlantic, the responsibility as witnesses, survivors, and villains from one of Earth's greatest conflagrations and liquidations to bear witness and say never again, etc. The book is oddly readable and light, while remaining thick and bristling with detail. The nearly 1000 pages seem to float by, relatively effortlessly -- except for the occasional aforementioned obligatory slog/surveys through, most often, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, et al. The book is, for this sixty-year period in Europe, almost everything.
josh_paul's review against another edition
5.0
It's huge, it's filled with data, it's incredibly written, if you only ever read one book on European history this should be it.
pannika's review against another edition
5.0
A tour de force, masterpiece history of Europe between the end of WW2 until roughly 2000. The research and scholarship that has gone into this is indisputable. It provided a rare insight into the immediate postwar period: the dislocation of so many people, the continued anti-Semitism, the continued injustices, living in postwar deprivation and destruction. Though I knew quite a lot about the war, I was stupidly ignorant of conditions immediately after it. This filled in so many gaps for that period and then progressed through the events that buffeted Europe's population left and right for the next 50+ years.
I was so appreciative of the fact that it does not treat the UK as the centre of the world, as the focus of all events. The UK is treated as an island nation off the north west coast of Europe. The focus was evenly spread on postwar events across the whole of Europe which allows for a far greater understanding of why politics are the way they are now. This is a big read but well worth it.
I was so appreciative of the fact that it does not treat the UK as the centre of the world, as the focus of all events. The UK is treated as an island nation off the north west coast of Europe. The focus was evenly spread on postwar events across the whole of Europe which allows for a far greater understanding of why politics are the way they are now. This is a big read but well worth it.
tomviii's review against another edition
5.0
An enlightening read, in all I the books of history written about European history in this period few are as honest or broad I. It's descriptions.
nilsjesper's review
5.0
An amazingly well written history of Europe from the ruins of WWII through the Iraq war covering east, west, politics, arts and everyday life. Judt clearly has a non-objective point of view on some of the proceedings and admits to as much up front. The section on Thatcher's Britain comes to mind. But that doesn't diminish any of the scholarly achievement or how much can be learned from all of the different narratives he presents. It's a long read but a great one.
dozensgap's review against another edition
5.0
An enlightening read, in all I the books of history written about European history in this period few are as honest or broad I. It's descriptions.