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Thinking the Twentieth Century Paperback – January 29, 2013

by Tony Judt (Author), Timothy Snyder (Contributor)

47 customer reviews

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"Ideas crackle" in this triumphant final book of Tony Judt, taking readers on "a wild ride through the ideological currents and shoals of 20th century thought.” (Los Angeles Times)

One of our most brilliant historians, Tony Judt brings the past century vividly to life in this unprecedented and original history. Structured as a series of intimate conversations between Judt and his friend and fellow historian Timothy Snyder, Thinking the Twentieth Century presents the triumphs and the failures of the twentieth century's most prominent intellectuals and their ideas, guiding readers through the debates that defined our world. Spanning an era with unprecedented clarity and insight, Thinking the Twentieth Century is a tour de force: a masterful analysis of the life of the mind and an unforgettable guide to leading the mindful life.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"There are so many ways that Thinking the Twentieth Century is a remarkable book. The lifetime of scholarship and intellectual engagement lying behind that verb "thinking" in the title. The way ideas crackle in the interplay between the authors. The passionate involvement with issues political and controversial. That the book could have been written at all, given the tragic circumstances surrounding it... Judt proceeds to take the reader on a wild ride through the ideological currents and shoals of 20th century thought."
—The Los Angeles Times — THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

“An intellectual feast, learned, lucid, challenging and accessible.”
—San Francisco Chronicle — SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

“Fans will find plenty to sustain them in this poignant coda to a life marked by great feats of penmanship, scholarly insight and contemporary polemic… [Judt’s] bravery is ever-present, but rightly understated. As Mr Snyder notes in his introduction, the book is both about the life of the mind and a mindful life. Judt exemplified both.”
—The Economist — THE ECONOMIST

“Judt was a provocateur, but maybe an accidental one, and after reading this remarkable, impassioned book, it's hard to doubt his sincerity… Thinking the Twentieth Century is Judt's final salvo against what he saw as a culture of historical ignorance and political apathy, and it's every bit as brilliant, uncompromising and original as he was.”
—NPR — NPR.org

“Incandescent on every page with intellectual energy.”
—Pankaj Mishra, Prospect Magazine (UK) — Pankaj Mishra, PROSPECT MAGAZINE (UK)

"Scintillating... a lively, browsable, deeply satisfying meditation on recent history by a deservedly celebrated public intellectual."
—Publisher's Weekly (starred review) — PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)

About the Author

Tony Judt (1948–2010) was the author or editor of fifteen books, including The Memory Chalet and Postwar, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He was the director and founder of the Remarque Institute and a professor at New York University.

Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and the author of five award-winning books, most recently Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (January 29, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143123041
ISBN-13: 978-0143123040
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 47 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #862 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Philosophy > Political
- #2228 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science > History & Theory
- #3213 in Books > History > Historical Study & Educational Resources

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"Thinking the Twentieth Century" by Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder

Bywestonon March 1, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An edited transcript by the second author of discussions with the first, a well-known public intellectual and historian of Eastern Europe, as he awaited death in 2009 from a neurological disorder that destroyed his ability to write but did not impair his mental faculties. Judt was the son of Jewish emigrants to England from Eastern Europe who grew up in 1950s mid-lower class London, went to Cambridge on scholarship and to the Ecole Normale Superieure, became a Marxist, and spent his life teaching at Cambridge, Oxford, Berkeley and NYU and writing books on European history and essays for the New York Review of Books. This is the "Twentieth Century" to which the title refers.

There is a lot of talk about what historians do (it is not so simple as just writing about what happened), about socialist policies that governments have or should have, about Nazism and Stalinism, about the Holocaust, about what other commentators on the left have said on these subjects, about how giving up on the Soviet Union was so hard for many leftists of an earlier generation because it meant giving up friendships, etc. By and large, interesting insights about the times and the lives of public intellectuals on the left, although the second author's obsession with the illegitimacy of the Bush presidency is tiresome at one point.

0Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

great thinker looks over his life and career-long interests

ByRobert J. Crawfordon October 31, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is a mix of memoires and a critical introduction to 20th C. history. As a historian specializing in contemporary issues, he brings a unique perspective to the major political problems that we have faced in our lifetimes, reviewing them for the basics but also adding his unique interpretation. Indeed, as a "major" in international relations in France, I studied every single issue that he covers in this wonderfully interesting and challenging book.

Starting off in a working class family, Judt outlines how he got into Cambridge, entering an intellectual elite that he never left. It was a combination of brains and extremely hard work, plus a bit of luck in the teachers who encouraged him. He laments that the path that led him to Cambridge is rapidly vanishing as the power of money and privilege is renewing itself as he was writing.

As I see it, there are 3 large issues that he attacked during his career. First, there was the French intellectual tradition, starting in about the 1930s and up to the 1980s. That was the era of Sartre, Camus, and Aron, men that I studied as a student in Paris. Though I have long since left them behind, it was an absolute delight to get his read on them, a journey that I made in a far less scholarly way than he. Second, starting as a young Zionist, he recapitulates his long journey from ardent Kibbutzim to the disillusioned critic, who saw Israel as a colonial power of questionable legitimacy. Agree with him or not, the case he makes - based on personal experience as a participant in the 1967 war that transformed Israel from a defensive power to an aggressively militaristic one - deserves consideration. Third, he covered the communist idea, from its origins in the 19C up to its end and the aftermath in Eastern Europe. This went beyond what had occurred during my studies and so was a great eye opener for me, truly new content that created an agenda of study that I wil undertake over the next decade. Again, an intellectual delight.

Throughout the book, Judt offers details from his personal life, which paralleled his intellectual undertakings. It is a candid and self-critical view, from his divorces to the environment at the New York Review of Books that opened new vistas for him as a writer. He even took up Czech in his mid-30s, to complete his study of the collapse of communism. He is wonderfully candid, to the point that I am not sure I would have liked to work with the man. For example, he cheerfully admits that New York University - his career home base - is mediocre. He also calls Thomas Friedman of the NYT "execrable" as a thinker, which I admit is exactly how I perceive him. Judt was a difficult guy, never wastes time on false modesty, and displays a refreshingly biting cynicism about the pretentions of his milieu. Now that is fun!

The book was written as a kind of dialogue with another historian. I can't say that I particularly liked this style, but it offers a very fun overview of a life's work. The co-author is no sycophant, but he doesn't add much in my view and occasionally disrupts the unity of voice. While rigorous, it also lacks the tightness of a fully academic work, offering generalizations rather than a finely honed original thesis.

Recommended as an introduction to a great thinker and a delightful summary of a life's work. Judt will be missed.

0Comment 9 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Judt's competence

ByAnton Hardyon August 23, 2012

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Tony Judt never ceases to amaze with his wealth of historical knowledge and balanced judgment. He holds out a model for us all of what scholarly erudition in a field - - whether this be history, literature, psychology, art - - should be. In this book and in his "Postwar," one profits immensely from his knowledge and perspective. Especially topical, I thought, are the pages at the end where he exposes the short-sightedness of present-day assumptions and thinking in American pubic life.

The co-author, Timothy Snyder, is a very worthy interlocutor, and we owe him a great deal for initiating and contributing to this end-of-life dialogue.

0Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Both profound and funny

ByRichard Crouchon October 11, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I think this is the best book I've read all year. It's one you'll want to read slowly, pausing frequently to absorb striking and deep historical and political observations. And unusually for a history book, there are some parts that are laugh out loud funny.

It is possible that this book will appeal more to readers from a British background. It's a mixture of personal and historical observation, and the personal is heavily influenced by a lower middle class, London upbringing that was elevated through the educational opportunities offered by a now crumbling post-war social democratic contract.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

A Book That Will Teach You Very Big Things

Byross of pt.robertson December 31, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The conversation between Judt and Snyder made me understand that i had no genuine knowledge of what went on in the 20th century, despite having lived through 2/3 of it. Not that I wasn't paying attention, but that I had obtained my information largely through the U.S.-lens that tends to tell us that everything the U.S. is doing is the most important thing that anyone is doing. Never felt so humbled by a book, I think. After I finished it, I read it again. And I've followed it up with others of Judt's works and continue to feel that his work is a great gift to anyone who makes the effort to read it. It is not easy because his frame of reference is so large. But you learn something very big.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most recent customer reviews

will buy next time.

Nice and valuable. If you have only one product, this is the one to have it is very fast delivery. best service, patient. my company need it ,

Published 3 months ago by Gill

STOP AMAZON/ BREITBART NEWS

I AM HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH AMAZON TILL IT STOPS ADVERTISING ON BREITBART NEWS!!

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Just what I was looking for

Published 5 months ago by Stan

The last thoughts of a true intellectual

Only five years or so after the publication of his magnum opus, Postwar, Tony Judt was diagnosed with ALS.Read more

Published 1 year ago by J. P Spencer

Five Stars

FINE

Published 1 year ago by frank snyder

Five Stars

Excellent writer!

Published 1 year ago by E. Robyn H.

Five Stars

Great read.

Published on September 1, 2015 by Matthew Bommarito

Thanks Tim

This is a very interesting transcript of the dialog between Tony and Tim once ALS left Tony no longer able to write other than by dictation.Read more

Published on July 25, 2015 by William S Jamison

So far, I am very impressed. a thoughtful ...

So far, I am very impressed. a thoughtful, insightful, informed discussion of social, political, and economic developments during the 20th century.Read more

Published on March 25, 2015 by Jon Dewey

Five Stars

wonderful service wonderful book

Published on February 5, 2015 by Miss S Behrendt

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