Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Magnificent one-volume work on the history of postwar Europe, as starters.To say this is a generic and easy read would be a massive disservice to the author, because it's written like an academic text, the stuff you'd expect to find in college textbooks. The sheer volume of information laid out in Postwar are simply amazing, and at times overwhelming and confusing to understand - much more comprehend. This is not something you can simply finish within a week, or even a month. To the faint of heart this is a scary and intimidating book… but this is what gives it so much power and authority, actually.The truth is, Tony Judt made a compelling case on the need for Europe to reexamine and reevaluate her own past, especially in her complicity in the Holocaust, and in the bloody Yugoslavian civil war of the 1990s. Both her highs - from the economic miracles of the 1950s, to the political dynamics behind the creation of the EU; to her lows - the indifference in the Yugoslavian crisis, her (in this case Western Europe) stalling of the applications of the Eastern European states, were all exposed and laid bare. Even the messy aftermath and the end of the colonial eras (UK, France, Belgium, the Netherland to name a few), and the actual reasons behind the formation of the EU (a mostly French political project to restrain Germany) were discussed in-depth, and in detail. If one were to look for an authoritative reference on postwar European history, this would be my recommendation.The author even dedicated a few chapters into the European culture, especially of the 1960s-1970s where the generations became more "liberal" in the sense that secularism and feminism began making waves in the various European states. Judt also adeptly discussed the culture surrounding the European sentiments into the Holocaust (the book's Epilogue) - which I found both surprising and noteworthy. Surprising since I did not expect an entire chapter to be discussed on the culture and the implications of the Holocaust (the Shoah), but noteworthy because how he connected it to the issue of Europe's identity, that Europe needs to confront its own past for it to understand and chart her future - as he said it: "...the recovered memory of Europe's dead Jews has become the very definition and guarantee of the continent's restored humanity." (p.804)More than that, Judt did a good job on explaining various key events in the continent's postwar history, notably the immediate postwar reconstruction, the Nuremberg trials and subsequent de-Nazification, the creation of NATO...the birth of (the future) European Union, the beginnings of the Cold War, even the fall of Communism and the bloody Yugoslavian civil war. Almost every important event in postwar Europe (of course, up until the early 2000s only), was covered in detail (at times even a bit of overload). Even the culture and the arts (from movies up to the music movements) were also discussed.However, noteworthy and comprehensive as the book was, there were a few shortcomings by the author - of which I do not find him at fault. Some notable absences (or glossed over in minor details) were the bloody Greek civil war (the focus was on the Greek economic reconstruction and subsequent slide to dictatorship), the obscure Cod Wars between Iceland and the UK (of which Iceland somehow won the conflict), the policy of Finlandization (the political balancing act of postwar Finland to maintain her independence), the 1983 NATO Able Archer joint military exercise (that almost brought the world to the brink of nuclear war again since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis), the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (in which Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan [not a European country] relinquished their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the West), and the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade (in the height of the Kosovo War)...to name a few. I am sure there are more important events that were not mentioned by the author, these are the only notable ones I can remember. Another (though at the time minor given the year of its publication) noteworthy mistake was the Russification of Ukrainian identity, notably in the maps provided (Kyiv is spelled as Kiev, Kharkiv as Kharkov)… Again I do not blame the author for this, as it was still interchangeable (plus nobody expected that the region would descend into war...until 2014 and 2022 happened). Nevertheless, these should not take away the book's magnificent discussion and presentation of postwar European history. At least the review's fairly balanced - as it also had its own shortcomings.Overall, this is an astounding and magnificent piece of literature - a must-read and must-own for every history enthusiast out there. Despite being published in 2005, it is highly relevant to read and own in today's context, as it offered multiple invaluable lessons in how to study, understand, and analyze postwar Europe. While so much has happened since then, it's still worth reading. I'd say Ian Kershaw's The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 (the 9th installment of The Penguin History of Europe series) is the 'lighter' and more updated version of Judt's book (as the content was similar in so many chapters, yet the coverage is until 2017 - which means the 2008 Global Recession, the EU crisis, and Brexit were all mentioned) - though Kershaw's version is as bit of a heavy and comprehensive reading as Judt's (I'd suggest you need to own both books to fully appreciate European history).I said to myself that the book would take me months to finish and absorb - and it's true. Despite devoting one and a half hours everyday, it still took me 4 months to finish it (as evidenced by the sheer number of self-adhesive notes I placed next to key information and statistics throughout the book). Though it's well worth the time, and the journey. Highly recommend, and I'd like to end this by offering my everlasting gratitude and thanks to my dear officemate who recommended the book to me - without her, I'd never discover and appreciate this literary and historical masterpiece! To her, thank you for opening my horizons and knowledge on this topic - I simply could not find words that could express how much I am grateful for you. I hope this simple message will be more than enough for you!Again, highly recommend - but be warned: it's not for the faint-of-heart, or for the causal reader. If you're considering buying this - better be prepared to invest your time into it, but well-worth it at the end.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The twentieth century as I thought I knew it ended in 1989 after President Reagan proclaimed an end to the Cold War, an order which ultimately marked the unraveling and eventual downfall of Communism across Eastern Europe.Many Americans remember where they were on 9/11. I was nineteen lounging in front of my parents' living room television when I witnessed east and West German youths using chisels and sledge hammers to gouge the iron flesh of the "Wall of Shame," a physical barrier that had separated them for thirty years. It was a monumental occasion but also surprising, considering that my generation had grown up accepting the unending conflict between Democracy and Communism, the "good guys" verses the "evil empire." How was one to explain such a transformative event?To answer this question, I turned to Professor Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. It was on page 659 that I found an answer to my question: "Washington did not `bring down' Communism--Communism imploded of its own accord." The history that I had received in school had not meshed with what I had just read. Was it not American muscle that had brought the Soviets to their proverbial knees? My questioning of everything I had known about the twentieth century but especially Europe became a standard fixture as I worked my way through this text.Standing at a prodigious four sections, 24 chapters, an epilogue, and most importantly 831 pages, there are many themes to explore. So many, in fact, that I would need a different writing venue in order to examine them properly. One of the most important themes, however, is the one that I discovered after finding an answer to my question about the fall of Communism: the ease of collective forgetting and the obtuseness of remembering. Europeans, according to Judt, have belatedly endorsed official history following World War II as having been well intentioned and readily available to the public, but ultimately it was more fiction than fact. Through this declaration, Judt does not suggest that his interpretation is the definitive retrospective; in fact, he contends that future scholarship will likely prove some of his details inaccurate.However, the evidence he provides, combined with an encyclopedic rendering of postwar Europe, along with his pristine historical credentials, is convincing. His attacks are controversial bordering on scathing, but Judt is a fair arbiter when dishing out blame. For example, in chapter three he likely enraged the left when he praised the United States for saving much of impoverished Europe through the Marshall Plan. By the same token, conservatives may flummox to hear that Marshall dollars found their way to communist countries, notably to Tito's Yugoslavia.In many chapters, Judt also painstakingly shreds any romantic notions of Communism felt by Communists living in the West, especially France. By the time I finished reading how the Soviet politburo used Eastern European Communist parties to infiltrate, intimidate, torture, and murder as a means of effectively colonizing the eastern bloc, I became nauseous; sickness pulsed through my body when I read that west Europeans--especially Germans--readily accepted Stalin's iron walls because they were happily preoccupied chasing wealth.What we thought we knew about twentieth century political icons also falls under Judt's microscope. For example, there is Judt's analysis of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who, while certainly making Britain's economy more efficient and productive, was responsible for doing "serious harm to the fabric of British public life." Though Socialist, Francois Mitterrand followed Thatcher's lead in privatizing services and turning rapidly towards free market capitalism via the European Union. Even Greece joined the bandwagon when implementing austerity measures to reform its budget woes, only to be undercut by Germany which refused to abide by the E.U. economic charter right afer reunification. What appears did not really appear, and what was never said actually happened were the two thoughts that ruminated throughout my brain.Finally, in his epilogue, there is the heart wrenching unpacking of Europe's malfeasant treatment of Jews who somehow survived concentration camps, only to face a country whose citizens refused to acknowledge what had happened and who would foster the heroic myth that they had resisted when in fact they were willing accomplices without German provocation. If one reads Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands, this feat of Jewish survival is astounding considering that 90 percent of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were not even sent to a camp: they were simply shot or gassed.Remembering what is wrong, forgetting what is correct, and refusing to entertain either. This is what Judt's Postwar contributes most not only to an understanding of postwar Europe but to the twentieth century in general. The twentieth century indeed was a time of immeasurable economic prosperity, but it also was a temporary elixir for the brutal and discomforting memories of the past. As Judt suggests, in the last few decades, Europeans have openly accepted their crimes of the past as an admission ticket to the E.U. That may serve many of my generation well, but it can never replace history itself. Just ask the frustrated younger generation searching for gainful employment. If the next generation is to find its way, it must be equipped with an unvarnished past, an idea which is readily promoted in this text.

Firstly this book is worth reading and a good primer for European history since 1945, which adds a lot of context to today's politics. The knowledge and research demonstrated by the author is impressive.There are some big flaws to the book in my opinion though. Firstly, it is a tough read and at times the text is overly dense. However, the bigger problem is the attempt to cover the history of the Warsaw Pact countries AND the USSR, as well as Western Europe. There is simply too much ground to cover in one book for both the author and the reader. It would have been better to cover the history of the Soviet Bloc up to 1991 in a separate book.The author seems to be more interested in the history of Communism and as a result the history of Western Europe is seriously neglected. We have almost nothing on Ireland/Ulster, we hear almost nothing about the Nordic countries. Thatcher is covered in a few pages. About Spain in the 1980s, there is very little. The history of the Europe Union, is frustratingly limited. Perhaps most glaringly of all we hear nothing from the people of Europe themselves. I'd also say the book rather peters out in the end. Although it was written in 2006 we don't really get a summary of where Europe is at at that point and how it will evolve in the future.As I say this is overall a good book and worth reading. But it is far from being the definitive version of the history of Europe since 1945.

I see there are a lot of views expressed in the reviews here disagreeing with Judt's viewpoints on various issues. By and large I am happy with his views although at various points his emphases are different to mine.What most interests me however is how this book covers certain key areas of European development which I have not previously had the opportunity of considering in such depth.These are:The extent of the devastation of almost all Europe and the necessary reconstruction, apparently accomplished with amazing speed after the war, and the enormous importance of cleverly designed Marshall Aid in achieving this;The development of the Iron Curtain, the rapidly changing perceptions by the rest of the world of Stalin's intentions and activities, and in particular how this was experienced by the eastern European countries themselves. I had mostly been used to considering this from a western perspective.The development of the Common Market, mostly at the instigation of the French, who just as they had after the First World War, wanted to protect themselves, but this time the muscle and strength was always and increasingly provided by Germany.Prior to reading this book I didn't really understand quite how the EEC had worked, its parameters, its purpose and limitations.Judt's views on later events were less revelatory to me because I had been there at the time, but his perspectives are always interesting.Judt takes great care to consider the experience of many different countries, and as he does so I learned an enormous amount about the differences between say the Czech, the Polish, the Yugoslavian experience of being communist.His epilogue is a consideration of the experience of the Jews after the war and I found this too especially valuable, and although he does not discuss the state of Israel, Judt helped me understand why the establishment of the Israeli state was so important.

Pretty good. Excellently researched and laid out. Couldn't get past the idea that the book seemed like a postwar history of the major European Powers. Yes, they played important roles... but every page " Germany , The U.K. , Italy, France , The USSR. " Of course, the bookk is titled Post War, so these nations perspectives are highly relevant. However, even when references to smaller nations would serve better in enlightening a particular issue, he reverts to the big guns.. gets a bit annoying after the fifteenth time per chapter. The book cannot be faulted otherwise.. Just a personal gripe. I am trying to move beyond the " top down" approach to history I guess!

This is no easy read. To be frank, I started reading on Kindle last August and I am 80% through. It is a massive piece of work. In his book 'Postwar' Tony Judt describes in sometimes excruciating detail, the economic, social and political changes as well as the reasons for the changes in all the countries of Europe. The work is probably most valuable as a reference on subjects such as for example; the fall of communism, the effect of the transistor radio on 1960's youth, the impact of the EU. I could go on.Judt sometimes writes difficult sentences and has a habit of using unusual words so that frequent references to a dictionary are required. A more annoying habit is the insertion of French phrases. Frustrating to non French speakers.These are my only criticisms. The reader gains insight into how the modern world developed as well as the idea that we take much for granted. The Europe of today is truly miraculous when seen from the perspective of the devastation in 1945.

Tony Judy describes his personal observation of modern Europe in this masterwork of modern history. At the start, you feel the pain and deprivation of the immediate postwar years; e.g. from the societal collapse in Germany and devastation of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to the economic malaise of postwar Britain to the booming optimism of the USA. He deftly describes the political conundrums of re-admitting a newly sovereign Federal Republic of Germany to a suspicious Europe. He gives us a picture of the mutual overtures between France and Germany that would form the basis for the modern EU. It is clear that without the influence of the USA, the Europe of today would simply not exist. The political and economic power of an America, always suspicious of alliances, was absolutely necessary to prevent French retribution against and/or a Soviet takeover of a defeated Germany or a return of neo-nazi rule. The postwar order was far from ideal, but as we see today, there was great wisdom in actions of the USA in precipitating the economic miracle in Western Europe.Having not yet completed reading the book, I can't comment on the 1960s-2000s, but if Judt's description of the postwar and early cold war years are any indication, I will not be disappointed. This is a very personal history, so if you like a more detached writing style, then perhaps you may not like this book. Tony Judt explicitly states that this book contains many of his own bias and interpretations of events. I find that this adds considerably to the text and makes it eminently readable. I also think that since Tony Judt has lived on both sides of the Pond, it gives him a unique ability to write from both a European and an American perspective that will find wide appeal in the English speaking world. This book is for all those who want to understand the origins of the European Union, the history of the European Cold War and the love-hate relationship that exists between Europe and the USA, despite the fact that Europe and the USA are inextricably bound to each other and could quite be each others' salvation in the possible coming conflicts with Asia and a resurgent Russia.