Past Imperfect

by Judt, Tony

• ISBN13: 9780814743560
• ISBN10: 0814743560
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-01
• Publisher: New York Univ Pr

Summary

" Past Imperfectis a forthright and uncommonly damning study of those intellectually volatile years [1944-1956]. Mr. Judt...does more than simply describe the ideological acrobats of his subjects; he is a sharp, even a vindictive moralist who indicts these intellectuals for their inhumanity in failing to test their political thought against political reality." #x13; John Sturrock, New York Times Book Review

Author Biography

Tony Judt (1948-2010) was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of European Studies at New York University and Founding Director of NYU's Remarque Institute. A prominent historian and one of the great political thinkers of our time, Judt was the author of more than a dozen books, including Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts Sciences and of the British Academy, and the recipient of the Orwell Prize for Lifetime Achievement. Judt was a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, among many other publications in Europe, America, and around the world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Force of Circumstance?	p. 13
Decline and Fall
The French Intellectual Community at the End of the Third Republic	p. 15
In the Light of Experience
The ôLessonsö of Defeat and Occupation	p. 26
Resistance and Revenge
The Semantics of Commitment in the Aftermath of Liberation	p. 45
What Is Political Justice?
Philosophical Anticipations of the Cold War	p. 75
The Blood of Others	p. 99
Show Trials
Political Terror in the East European Mirror, 1947-1953	p. 101
The Blind Force of History
The Philosophical Case for Terror	p. 117
Today Things Are Clear
Doubts, Dissent, and Awakenings	p. 139
The Treason of the Intellectuals	p. 151
The Sacrifices of the Russian People
A Phenomenology of Intellectual Russophilia	p. 153
About the East We Can Do Nothing
Of Double Standards and Bad Faith	p. 168
America Has Gone Mad
Anti-Americanism in Historical Perspective	p. 187
We Must Not Disillusion the Workers
On the Self-Abnegation and Elective Affinities of the Intellectual	p. 205
The Middle Kingdom	p. 227
Liberalism, There Is the Enemy
On Some Peculiarities of French Political Thought	p. 229
Gesta Dei per Francos
The Frenchness of French Intellectuals	p. 246
Europe and the French Intellectuals
The Responsibilities of Power	p. 275
Conclusion: Goodbye to All That?	p. 293
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 321
Index	p. 335
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