Tony Judt
Tony Judt École Normale Supérieure | |
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Occupation(s) | Historian; Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University |
Spouse | Jennifer Homans |
Tony Robert Judt
Biography
Judt was born on 2 January 1948 in
Judt won a place at
As a high school and university student he was a left-wing Zionist, and worked summers on kibbutzim. He moved away from Zionism after the Six-Day War of 1967, later saying, "I went with this idealistic fantasy of creating a socialist, communitarian country", but that he came to realise that left-wing Zionists were "remarkably unconscious of the people who had been kicked out of the country...to make this fantasy possible".[4] He came to describe his Zionism as his particular "ideological overinvestment" and he moved away from Marxism in the 1970s and 1980s.[8] Judt wrote in February 2010, "Before even turning twenty I had become, been, and ceased to be a Zionist, a Marxist, and a communitarian settler: no mean achievement for a south London teenager".[9] In later life, he described himself as "a universalist social democrat".[9]
After completing his Cambridge doctorate, Judt was elected a junior fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1972, where he taught modern French history until 1978.[10] After a brief stint teaching social history at the University of California, Berkeley, he returned to the United Kingdom in 1980 to teach politics at St Anne's College, Oxford. He moved to New York University in 1987.
Judt's works include the highly acclaimed
In an interview a few weeks before his death, Judt said, "I see myself as first and above all a teacher of history; next a writer of European history; next a commentator on European affairs; next a public intellectual voice within the American Left; and only then an occasional, opportunistic participant in the pained American discussion of the
Judt was married three times, his first two marriages ending in divorce. His third marriage was to Jennifer Homans, The New Republic's dance critic, with whom he had two children.[1][13] In June 2010, Judt and his son Daniel wrote a dialogue about Barack Obama, politics and corporate behaviour for The New York Times.[14][15]
Writings
European history
Judt's experiences in Paris contributed to a long and fruitful relationship with French political culture. He translated his Cambridge doctorate into French and published it in 1976 as La reconstruction du parti socialiste: 1921–1926. It was introduced by Annie Kriegel, who along with Maurice Agulhon was an important influence on his early work as a French social historian. Judt's second book, Socialism in Provence 1871–1914: A Study in the Origins of the French Modern Left, an "enquiry into a political tradition that shaped a nation",[16] was an attempt to explain early origins and the continuities of left-wing politics in the region. More than any other work by Judt, Socialism in Provence was based on extensive archival research. It was his only attempt to place himself within the social history that was dominant in the 1970s.
Modern French history
In the 1970s and 1980s, Judt was a historian of modern France. Marxism and the French Left: Studies in Labour and Politics in France 1830–1981 collects several previously unpublished essays on the 19th and 20th centuries, ending with a discussion of
After President
Postwar
In the years after the publication of Past Imperfect, Judt turned his attention to wider issues of European history. He spent the 1980s and much of the 1990s at Emory, Oxford, Stanford, and Vienna, where he taught political theory, learned Czech and became friendly with a number of east European intellectuals.
Judt's first broader book of this period—the result of a speech delivered at the
These problems, Judt wrote, could find resolution only in increased national intervention. States would be called upon to redistribute wealth and preserve the decaying social fabric of the societies they governed. This conception of the role of the state was carried over—albeit in slightly different form—into Judt's 2005 book, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945.
In Postwar, Judt examined the history of Europe from the end of World War II (1945) to 2005. Writing on such a broad subject was something of a departure for Judt, whose earlier works, such as Socialism in Provence and Past Imperfect, had focused on challenging conventional assumptions about the French Left. At nearly 900 pages, Postwar has won considerable praise for its sweeping, encyclopaedic scope
Ill Fares the Land
Judt's last book published during his lifetime, Ill Fares the Land, projected lessons learned forward, challenging readers to debate "what comes next?" The book made the case for renewed social democracy; it received mixed reviews.[25][26][27]
Written under the debilitating effects of
Israel
Judt's parents were British citizens and secular Jews.[4] He enthusiastically embraced Zionism at age 15. For a time he wished to emigrate to Israel, against the wishes of his parents, who were concerned about his studies. In 1966, having won an exhibition to King's College, Cambridge, he worked for the summer on kibbutz Machanaim. When Nasser expelled UN troops from Sinai in 1967, and Israel mobilised for war, he volunteered to replace kibbutz members who had been called up. During and in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, he worked as a driver and translator for the Israel Defense Forces.[31] After the war, Judt's belief in the Zionist enterprise began to unravel.
In October 2003, in an article for The New York Review of Books, Judt argued that Israel was on its way to becoming a "belligerently intolerant, faith-driven ethno-state." He called for the conversion of "Israel from a Jewish state to a
In March 2006, Judt wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times about the John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy". Judt argued that "[in] spite of [the paper's] provocative title, the essay draws on a wide variety of standard sources and is mostly uncontentious [.... Does] the Israel Lobby affect our foreign policy choices? Of course—that is one of its goals [...]. But does pressure to support Israel distort American decisions? That's a matter of judgment." He summed up his assessment of Mearsheimer and Walt's paper by asserting that "this essay, by two 'realist' political scientists with no interest whatsoever in the Palestinians, is a straw in the wind." He predicted that "it will not be self-evident to future generations of Americans why the imperial might and international reputation of the United States are so closely aligned with one small, controversial Mediterranean client state."[37]
In May 2006, Judt continued in a similar vein with a feature-length article, "The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up", for the Israeli newspaper
On 4 October 2006, Judt's scheduled New York talk before the organisation Network 20/20 was abruptly cancelled after Polish Consul Krzysztof Kasprzyk suddenly withdrew his offer of a venue following phone calls from the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. The consul later told a reporter, "I don't have to subscribe to the First Amendment."[39] According to The New York Sun, "the appearance at the Polish consulate was canceled after the Polish government decided that Mr. Judt's views critical of Israel were not consistent with Poland's friendly relations with the Jewish state."[40]
According to The Washington Post, the ADL and AJC had complained to the Polish consul that Judt was "too critical of Israel and American Jewry", though both organisations deny asking that the talk be cancelled. ADL National Chairman Abraham Foxman called Judt's claims of interference "wild conspiracy theories." Kasprzyk told The Washington Post that "the phone calls were very elegant but may be interpreted as exercising a delicate pressure. That's obvious—we are adults and our IQs are high enough to understand that." Judt, who had planned to argue that the Israel lobby in the U.S. often stifled honest debate, called the implications of the cancellation "serious and frightening." He added that "only in America—not in Israel—is this a problem", charging that vigorous criticism of Israeli policy, acceptable in Israel itself, is taboo in the U.S. Of the ADL and AJC, he said, "These are Jewish organizations that believe they should keep people who disagree with them on the Middle East away from anyone who might listen."[41]
The cancellation evoked protest from a roster of academics and intellectuals who said there had been an attempt to intimidate and shut down free debate.[42] Mark Lilla and Richard Sennett wrote a letter to Foxman in protest, which was signed by 114 people and published in The New York Review of Books.[43] In a later exchange on the subject in The New York Review of Books, Lilla and Sennet argued, "Even without knowing the substance of those 'nice' calls from the ADL and AJC, any impartial observer will recognize them as not so subtle forms of pressure."[44]
The ADL and AJC defended their decision to contact the Polish consulate and rejected Judt's characterisation of them. Foxman accused his critics of themselves stifling free speech when "they use inflammatory words like 'threaten,' 'pressure,' and 'intimidate' that bear no resemblance to what actually transpired." He wrote that the "ADL did not threaten or intimidate or pressure anyone. The Polish consul general made his decision concerning Tony Judt's appearance strictly on his own." Foxman said that Judt had "taken the position that Israel shouldn't exist [and t]hat puts him on our radar", while AJC executive director David A. Harris said that he wanted to tell the consulate that the thrust of Judt's talk ran "contrary to the entire spirit of Polish foreign policy".[40]
In a March 2007 interview, Judt argued the American need to block criticism of Israel stemmed from the rise of identity politics in the U.S. "I didn't think I knew until then just how deep and how uniquely American this obsession with blocking any criticism of Israel is. It is uniquely American." He added ruefully: "Apparently, the line you take on Israel trumps everything else in life".[45]
Asked during an interview with NPR shortly before his death about his taste for controversy, Judt said, "I've only ever published four little essays in a lifetime of book writing and lecturing and teaching, just four little essays which touched controversially on painful bits of other people's anatomies, so to speak. Two of them were about Israel".[8]
Critical reception
Judt's peers praised him for his wide-ranging knowledge and versatility in historical analysis.
In 2009, Judt received a Special Orwell Prize for Lifetime Achievement for his contribution to British political writing.[47]
Some of his peers had a more critical view of Judt. Dylan Riley of the University of California, Berkeley, argued that Judt was more of a pamphleteer and a polemicist than a historian, and that he changed his views without hesitation or good reason.[48]
In 2007 Judt received the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought (German: Hannah-Arendt-Preis für politisches Denken), a prize awarded to individuals representing the tradition of political theorist Hannah Arendt, especially in regard to totalitarianism. It was instituted by the German Heinrich Böll Foundation (affiliated with the Alliance '90/The Greens) and the government of Bremen in 1994, and is awarded by an international jury.
Illness and death
In September 2008, Judt was diagnosed with
Judt died of ALS at his home in Manhattan on 6 August 2010.
After Judt's death,
Works
Books
- Judt, Tony (1976). La reconstruction du parti socialiste : 1921–1926. Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politique.
- Judt, Tony (1979). Socialism in Provence 1871–1914: A Study in the Origins of the Modern French Left. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-22172-2.
- Tony Judt, ed. (1989). Resistance and Revolution in Mediterranean Europe 1939–1948. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-01580-4.
- Judt, Tony (1990). Marxism and the French Left: Studies on Labour and Politics in France 1830–1982. Clarendon. ISBN 0-19-821578-9.
- Judt, Tony (1992). ISBN 0-520-07921-3.
- Judt, Tony (1996). A Grand Illusion? An Essay on Europe. Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 0-8090-5093-5.
- Judt, Tony (1998). The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-41418-3.
- ISBN 1-4039-6393-2.
- Tony Judt & Denis Lacorne, eds. (2004). Language, Nation, and State: Identity Politics in a Multilingual Age. Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-6393-2.
- Judt, Tony (2005). ISBN 1-59420-065-3.
- Tony Judt & Denis Lacorne, eds. (2005). With Us or Against Us: Studies in Global Anti-Americanism. Palgrave. ISBN 0-230-60226-6.
- Judt, Tony (2008). Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-59420-136-3.
- Judt, Tony (2010). Ill Fares the Land. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-59420-276-6.
- Judt, Tony (2010). The Memory Chalet. London: William Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-434-02096-6.
- Judt, Tony; ISBN 978-1-59420-323-7.
- Judt, Tony (2015). When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995–2010. ISBN 978-1-59420600-9. 400 pp.
Book reviews
- Judt, Tony (3 November 1994). "Truth and consequences". The New York Review of Books. 41 (18): 8–12.
- Péan, Pierre. Une jeunesse française : François Mitterrand 1934–1947. Fayard.
See also
References
- ^ a b c Grimes, William (7 August 2010). "Tony Judt, Chronicler of History, Is Dead at 62". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- JSTOR 4288253.
- ^ Preceding information contributed in person by Deborah Judt, sister of Tony Judt.
- ^ a b c Wheatcroft, Geoffrey (8 August 2010). "Tony Judt obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ Judt, Tony (19 August 2010). "Meritocrats". The New York Review of Books. 57 (13). Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 28 August 2010.
- ^ Toast to Tony Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Periodic Table of Videos, accessed 22 January 2015.
- ^ Grimes, William (8 August 2010). "Tony Judt, Chronicler of History, Is Dead at 62". The New York Times. p. A18. Archived from the original on 22 August 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Fresh Air Remembers Historian Tony Judt: Transcript". NPR. 11 August 2010. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ a b Judt, Tony (11 February 2010). "Kibbutz". The New York Review of Books. 57 (2). Archived from the original on 21 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
- ^ College website Historian Tony Judt dies Archived 21 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine, King's College Cambridge website, 9 August 2010
- ^ Herman, David (11 May 2009). "Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century". Jewish Quarterly. 213. Archived from the original on 12 February 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ Jukes, Peter (22 July 2010). "Tony Judt: The Last Interview". Prospect. 173. Archived from the original on 29 November 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
- ^ Hansen, Suzy (15 October 2006). "Judt at War". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on 26 July 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ Judt, Daniel; Judt, Tony (19 June 2010). "Generations in the Balance". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 June 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ Judt, Daniel (22 June 2010). "Michael Wolff Is the Child". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ Tony Judt, Socialism in Provence 1871–1914: A Study in the Origins of the Modern French Left, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
- ^ Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944–1956, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
- ^ Judt, Tony (19 July 1995). "French War Stories" Archived 22 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
- ^ OCLC 772696414.
- ^ "Postwar by Tony Judt". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 20 March 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2006.
- ^ "The Pulitzer Prize Winners 2006: General NonFiction". Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- ^ "Acclaimed British historian Tony Judt dies aged 62". BBC News. 8 August 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2005". The New York Times. 11 December 2005. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ Pevere, Geoff; Wagner, Vit; Smith, Dan (20 June 2009). "The Century So Far: Books". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 10 July 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
- ^ Patten, Chris (11 April 2010). "Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 4 August 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ^ Chambers, David (21 May 2010). "What then must we do?". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 21 May 2010.
- ^ Garner, Dwight (22 March 2010). "Renewing an Old Idea: Common Good". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 March 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
- ^ Jukes, Peter (22 July 2010). "A Man of his Word". Prospect. 173. Archived from the original on 10 December 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
- ^ a b Moser, Benjamin (2010). "New Books: Ill Fares the Land". Harper's. Vol. 320, no. 1, 921. Harper's Foundation. pp. 71–72. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
Judt offers his solution to the crisis of what he calls the past two 'lost decades,' in which 'fantasies of prosperity and limitless personal advancement displaced all talk of political liberation, social justice or collective action': a revival of the ideals of social democracy that brought stability and prosperity to a devastated Europe and security to generations of Americans who benefited from such public programs as Social Security and Medicare. Judt's passionate appeal for a return to social-democratic ideals....
(subscription required) - ^ a b LeVine, Mark (14 August 2010). "Tony Judt: An intellectual hero". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
- ^ "Embattled Academic Tony Judt Defends Call for Binational State". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
- ^ Judt, Tony (23 October 2003). "Israel: The Alternative". The New York Review of Books. 60 (16). Archived from the original on 3 December 2003. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
- ^ "Judt Labels Israel "Anachronistic," Calls for Binational State". Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). 17 October 2003. Archived from the original on 28 August 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
- ^ Wieseltier, Leon (18 October 2003). "Israel, Palestine, and the Return of the Bi-National Fantasy: What Is Not to Be Done". The New Republic Online. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
- ^ "Embattled Academic Tony Judt Defends Call for Binational State". The Forward. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
- ^ "Israel Forum Panel Asks, 'Does the Jewish State Have a Future?'". Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- ^ Judt, Tony (19 April 2006). "A Lobby, Not a Conspiracy". The New York Times. p. A21. Archived from the original on 5 November 2007. Retrieved 3 November 2006.
- ^ Judt, Tony (2 May 2006). "The Country That Wouldn't Grow Up". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 25 September 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- The Jewish Week. 6 October 2006. Archivedfrom the original on 7 November 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
- ^ a b Karni, Annie (5 October 2006). "Another Judt Appearance Abrubtly [sic] Canceled". The New York Sun. p. 1. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
- ^ Powell, Michael (9 October 2006). "In N.Y., Sparks Fly Over Israel Criticism". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2006.
- ^ Traub, James (14 January 2007). "Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
- ^ Lilla, Mark & Sennett, Richard (16 November 2006). "The Case of Tony Judt: An Open Letter to the ADL". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 22 February 2007. Retrieved 19 March 2007.
- ^ "The ADL and Tony Judt: An Exchange". The New York Review of Books. 30 November 2006. Archived from the original on 14 November 2006. Retrieved 10 November 2006.
- ^ Graham, Bowley (16 March 2007). "Lunch with the FT: Tony Judt". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- ^ a b Freedland, Jonathan (9 October 2008). "A Case of Intellectual Independence". The New York Review of Books. 55 (15). Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "The Orwell Prize Winners 2009: Special Lifetime Achievement Award". Archived from the original on 2 April 2009. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
- ^ Riley, Dylan (September 2011). "Tony Judt:A cooler look". New Left Review. 71: 31–63 here 63. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
- ^ a b Pilkington, Ed (9 January 2010). "A bunch of dead muscles, thinking". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
- ^ Judt, Tony (14 January 2010). "Night". The New York Review of Books. 57 (1). Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2010.
- ^ "A Historian's Long View on Living With Lou Gehrig's". NPR. 29 March 2010. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "No Triumph, No Tragedy". BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 24 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
- ^ Grimes, William (7 August 2010). "Tony Judt, Author and Intellectual, Is Dead". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 August 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^ Jukes, Peter (22 July 2010). "A Man of his Word". Prospect Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 December 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2010.
- Independent News & Media. Archivedfrom the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^ a b Doward, Jamie (7 August 2010). "Historian Tony Judt dies aged 62". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 September 2013. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
- ^ "Tony Judt 1948–2010". Der Standard (in German). 8 August 2010. Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- Snyder, Timothy (14 October 2010). "On Tony Judt". The New York Review of Books. 57 (15). Archivedfrom the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
- ^ "The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt". Random House. Retrieved 17 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Elliott, Michael (7 August 2010). "Tony Judt: A Public Intellectual Remembered". Time. Time Inc. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
- ^ Garton Ash, Timothy (20 August 2010). "Tony Judt (1948–2010)". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
External links
- Articles by Judt in The New York Review of Books
- Interview with Judt on Europe at the Historical Society of Boston University
- Tony Judt Collection at New York University Archives