When the Facts Change

Zusatztext

<p><b>A great thinker's final testament: a characteristically wise and forthright collection of essays from the author of<i>Postwar</i>and<i>Thinking the Twentieth Century</i>, spanning a career of extraordinary intellectual engagement. Edited and introduced by Jennifer Homans.</b></p> <p>Tony Judts first collection of essays,<i>Reappraisals</i>, was centred on twentieth-century Europe in history and memory. Some of Judts most prominent and indeed controversial essays felt outside of the scope of<i>Reappraisals</i>, most notably his writings on the state of Israel and its relationship to Palestine. There would be time, it was thought, to fit these essays into a larger frame. Sadly, this would not be the case, at least during the authors own life.</p><p>Now, in<i>When the Facts Change</i>, Tony Judts widow and fellow historian, Jennifer Homans, has found the frame, gathering together important essays from the span of Judts career that chronicle both the evolution of his thought and the remarkable consistency of his passionate engagement and intellectual élan. Whether the subject is the scholarly poverty of the new social history, the willful blindness of French collective memory about what happened to the countrys Jews during World War II, or the moral challenge to Israel of the so-called Palestinian problem, the majesty of Tony Judts work lies in his combination of unsparing honesty, intellectual brilliance, and ethical clarity.<i>When the Facts Change</i>exemplifies the utility, indeed the necessity, of minding our history and not letting cheerful fictions suffice in its place. An emphatic demonstration of the power of a great historian to connect us more deeply to the world as it was, as it is, and as it should be, it is a fitting capstone to an extraordinary body of work.</p>

Autorenportrait

Professor Tony Judt was a frequent contributor to<i>The New York Review of Books</i>, the<i>Times Literary Supplement</i>, the<i>New Republic</i>, the<i>New York Times</i>and many other journals in Europe and the US. His books include<i>Ill Fares the Land</i>,<i></i><i>Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century</i>, and<i>Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945</i>, which was one of the<i>New York Times Book Review</i>'s 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 62.

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