Book description
'Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay' - Oliver Goldsmith
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today. For thirty
years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material
self-interest: indeed, this very pursuit now constitutes whatever
remains of our sense of shared purpose. But we have forgotten how to
think about the life we live together: its goals and purposes. We are
now not only post-ideological; we have become post-ethical. We have
lost touch with the old questions that have defined politics since the
Greeks: is it good? Is it fair? Is it just? Is it right? Will it help
bring about a better society? A better world? The social contract that
defined postwar life in Europe and America - the guarantee of
security, stability and fairness - is no longer assured; in fact, it's
no longer part of collective conversation.
In this exceptional short book, Tony Judt reveals how we have
arrived at our present dangerously confused moment and masterfully
crystallizes our great unease, showing how we might yet think
ourselves out of it. If we are to replace fear with confidence then we
need a different story to tell, about state and society alike: a story
that carries moral and political conviction. Providing that story is
the purpose of this book.
At the time of his death, Tony Judt was the Erich Maria Remarque
Professor in European Studies at New York University. In 1996 he was
elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in
2007 a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. In 2009 Judt was
awarded a Special Orwell Prize for Lifetime Achievement for his
contribution to British Political writing.
Postwar: A History of
Europe Since 1945
(2005) was a runner up for the 2006 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for
Non-Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.
