Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century

Skewing Reality Intelligently

Judt is a person of great, knowledge and learning. He has a rare capacity to read History and its events from a number of different perspectives. Yet he is also a person who deliberately skews and slants his knowledge in service of his own prejudices. So the rereading he makes in this book of twentieth century history and its lessons for the future. Here his major lesson is the central importance of the terrible destructiveness of war, and therefore the necessity of its avoidance. This message on the surface certainly makes sense. But does it make sense when it comes to responding to the Japanese attack on the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor? Did it make sense in the Soviet Union's response in resisting the Reich's invasion of late June 1940? Does it make sense now for Judt to recommend a kind of pacifism in response to what he sees as a relatively harmless, scattered Islamic terror threat? Judt sees much but he deliberately scants much else. In his dismissal of the concept of Islamofascism he points to the less than state power of so many of the groups involved. But why does he deliberately omit discussing the major 'contractor' Iran ? And why does he ignore the role of Saudi Arabia in funding the propaganda war aimed at spreading Islam throughout the West? Judt writes that the world today looks back on the twentieth century from narrow, partisan, ethnic perspective. He laments the broader picture which for instance Europeans had after the French Revolution, the Enlightentment that preceeded it. He even believes that the West did have a certain perspective on its nineteenth century history understanding turning point events. He argues that a larger picture and larger lessons from the twentieth century have not emerged. He especically criticizes Americans saying that the absence of massive civilian American casualties means that the country unlike the Europeans does not really understand what War is. He argues thus that European reluctance to War is in fact a sign of their mature knoweldge and understanding. They got it , and America did not. One wonders how they would have gotten it had the United States not rescued Europe in the Second War. One wonders too how the Europeans will get it in the future should the growing Islamic power within and without undermine the traditional bases of their societies. Judt above all seems to imply that 'Peace' can be imposed by one side upon another. He does not seem to want to recognize the reality that their are violently, aggressive, expansionist forces which can be answered only by physical resistance. His mocking of the clash of civilizations, his underplaying of what some have called Global Jihad marks a major shortcoming of the work. How unfortunate that a person of Judt's tremendous learning should see so much and yet miss what is most essential.

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This book is a collection of the late prof. Tony Judt's essays. Most are from the NY Review of Books. They cover major political writers i.e. Koestler, Camus, Said and issues i.e. Israel, Belguium, Pope John Paul of the 20th century. The book is very interesting to read and hard to put down.

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