The author and historian Tony Judt died today at the age of 62. He had been battling Lou Gehrig's disease for the past three years.
The New York Times obituary can be accessed here.
Tony Judt was one of the best of a vanishing breed: the Public Intellectual. He did not avoid public fights, and was hated by many – especially neo-conservatives in Washington and Zionist fanatics.
To me, his greatest achievement was his history of Europe since 1945: Postwar (2006) (German Version: Geschichte Europas von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart). It is perhaps one of the most hopeful books of history I've read and I've always encouraged my students to read it.
In his last book – Ill Fares the Land – he addresses the younger generation and makes a passionate case for Social Democracy even as he realizes that it is an uphill battle in the United States, where the the racism and greed of the Tea Party movement seem to resonate:
"Understandably, social democracy is a hard sell in the United States.
One of my goals is to suggest that government can play an enhanced role
in our lives without threatening our liberties—and to argue that, since
the state is going to be with us for the foreseeable future, we would
do well to think about what sort of a state we want. In any case, much
that was best in American legislation and social policy over the course
of the twentieth century—and that we are now urged to dismantle in the
name of efficiency and “less government”—corresponds in practice to
what Europeans have called “social democracy.” Our problem is not what
to do; it is how to talk about it."(Tony Judt: Ill Fares the Land)
In 2006 I had a brief correspondence with Tony Judt after an interview with him was published in the neo-fascist German weekly Junge Freiheit. Why, I asked, would he legitimize a publication that was diametrically opposed to everything he believed in? Professor Judt was gracious enough to respond. He admitted that he had been ambivalent at best at agreeing to the interview, but in the end he didn't believe that "silence a consistent position for those of us who claim to favour dialogue over confrontation."
"Dialogue over confrontation" – words to live by.
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Learning this here first. Very sad.
David,
I’m a Thoreauist who views the Tea Party as way too sympathetic to Big Government, and, as you might expect, my vague memories of Judt are not positive.
However, your reminding us of how he irritated the neo-cons and Zionists, and of his willingness to give an interview to a mag he strongly disagreed with, makes me think maybe I should got hold of his book you mention. I’ve learned from people I disagreed with — perhaps I’ll learn something from that book.
Nice essay.
Dave Miller in Sacramento