Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 is a 2005 non-fiction book written by British historian Tony Judt, who specialised in European history. The book examines six decades of European history from the end of World War II in Europe in 1945 up to 2005. Postwar is widely considered one of the foremost accounts of contemporary European history, particularly with regards to the history of Eastern Europe. It has been translated into French and German.
Although it was published in 2005, Postwar had been in development since 1989.
Background
After completing his doctorate, Judt taught modern French history at King's College, Cambridge from 1972 until 1978. Judt has called this an important period of his academic development and particularly credited historian John Dunn as an influence. He subsequently taught politics at St Anne's College, Oxford until 1987, when he moved to New York University, where he taught history again. In 1995, he founded the Remarque Institute of NYU. At this time, Judt was considered an "obscure British historian".
Judt decided to write Postwar in 1989 while waiting for a train at Vienna central station, inspired at least in part by having witnessed the Velvet Revolution. It had been considered difficult to write a history of the Soviet Union (and Eastern Europe) until then due to lack of access to national archives, but the dissolution of the Soviet Union indicated that this may change in the foreseeable future.
Synopsis
Postwar is divided into four major parts: "Post-war", covering 19451953; "Prosperity and Its Discontents", covering 19531971; "Recessional", covering 19711989; and "After the Fall", covering 19892005. The book's structure is primarily chronological, with Judt covering events and developments in the context of their time.
Judt first presents the immediate aftermath of World War II, with Europe as a "battered, broken, helpless continent". The second part of Postwar follows the development of Europe into socio-economic stability and eventual prosperity, with a focus on European integration. Judt argues that the conditions for this development were created by World War II, both in practical and ideological terms. The socio-political stability of postwar Europe was, according to Judt, only possible because "thanks to war, occupation, boundary adjustments, expulsions, and genocide, almost everybody now lived in their own country, among their own people." According to Judt, this is also when the European Model of government and society first emerges, characterised by welfare protections, public funding for education and healthcare, and a rejection of violence as a legitimate means of political transformation. In its third part, Postwar highlights the stability of the European continent in the face of economic downturn and later examines the dissolution of the Soviet Union, again through the perspective of how that dissolution was affected by the values and influences of the "European Model". In the final part, Judt argues that many of the concerns occupying Europe immediately after World War II have dissipated, particularly fears of German militarisation. He provides a detailed history of the rebuilding of formerly communist countries in Eastern Europe. Postwar ends with Judt expressing cautious optimism regarding the future of the European continent and the ideological model that developed there between 1945 and 2005.
Publication and reception
Postwar was first published by Penguin Press in 2005. The first edition has 878 pages. Later editions are slightly longer due to the addition of a chapter entitled "Suggestions for Further Reading" before the index; the 2010 edition by Vintage books has 933 pages.
Immediately after its release, Postwar garnered international praise. The New York Times Book Review listed it as one of the ten best books of 2005. It won the 2006 Arthur Ross Book Award for the best book published on international affairs and was shortlisted for the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize. It also won the 2008 European Book Prize. The Guardian listed it as one of the best books of the 21st century in 2019.