Postwar A History of Europe Since 1945

One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year

Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.

Remarkable... The writing is vivid; the coverage-of little countries as well as of great ones-is virtually superhuman. (Louis Menand, The New Yorker)

Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.

Tony Judt was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies at New York University, as well as the founder and director of the Remarque Institute, dedicated to creating an ongoing conversation between Europe and the United States. He was educated at Kings College, Cambridge, and the École Normale Supérieure, Paris, and also taught at Cambridge, Oxford, and Berkeley. Professor Judt was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The New Republic, The New York Times, and many journals across Europe and the United States. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including Thinking the Twentieth Century, The Memory Chalet, Ill Fares the Land, Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century, and Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, which was one of The New York Times Book Reviews Ten Best Books of 2005, the winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He died in August 2010 at the age of sixty-two.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part One: Post-War: 1945-1953

I. The Legacy of War

II. Retribution

III. The Rehabilitation of Europe

IV. The Impossible Settlement

V. The Coming of the Cold War

VI. Into the Whirlwind

VII. Culture Wars

Coda. The End of Old Europe

Part Two: Prosperity and Its Discontents: 1953-1971

VIII. The Politics of Stability

IX. Lost Illusions

X. The Age of Affluence

XI. The Social Democratic Hour

XII. The Spectre of Revolution

XIII. The End of the Affair

Part Three: Recessional: 1971-1989

XIV. Diminished Expectations

XV. Politics in a New Key

XVI. A Time of Transition

XVII. The New Realism

XVIII. The Power of the Powerless

XIX. The End of the Old Order

Part Four: After the Fall: 1989-2005

XX. A Fissile Continent

XXI. The Reckoning

XXII. The Old Europe—:and the New

XXIII. The Varieties of Europe

XXIV. Europe as a Way of Life

Epilogue

From the House of the Dead: An Essay on Modern European Memory

Index