David P. Calleo
Judt, a New York University historian, has an admirable range of interests and competence. He is, for a start, a fine social historian; he has thought seriously about Europe's demographic patterns and their likely economic and social consequences; he clearly loves and studies the movies and popular music; and he is very much a historian of ideas. Although he regularly professes not to take the world of Parisian intellectuals very seriously, he himself seems an splendid product of that milieu, as might be expected from a graduate of France's cole Normale Suprieure.
— The Washington Post
Anthony Gottlieb
As Judt movingly draws it, the picture of Europe at the end of World War II is pitiful almost beyond bearing. Some 36.5 million Europeans are reckoned to have died between 1939 and 1945 because of the war. Tens of millions more were uprooted by Hitler and Stalin. In the immediate aftermath of Germany's defeat, the continent was scarred with violent retribution, purges and outbreaks of what in some places - like Greece and Yugoslavia - amounted to civil war. As Judt notes, the war in Europe did not really end in 1945 at all. Neither did the persecution of Jews end with the closing of the death camps: well over a thousand Jews were killed in Polish pogroms after the liberation of Poland.
— The New York Times
From the Publisher
Judt's massive, learned, brilliantly detailed account of Europe's recovery from the wreckage of World War II presents a whole continent in panorama even as it sets off detonations on almost every page.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Remarkable . . . The writing is vivid; the coverage-of little countries as well as of great ones-is virtually superhuman; and above all, the book is smart. Every page contains unexpected data, or a fresh observation, or a familar observation freshly turned.” —Louis Menand, The New Yorker
“Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal
“Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe
“Brave and remakable.” —The Washington Post
“Brilliant . . . A book that has the pace of a thriller and the scope of an encyclopedia . . . A very considerable achievement.” —The New York Review of Books
“Not likely to be surpassed for many years. . . . This is history writing at its best.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
AudioFile
Few listeners can hope to absorb all the complex maneuverings, but…the task becomes more palatable with the voice of narrator Ralph Cosham. His smooth facility with the spoken word and linguistic nuance keeps one moving forward. He also rises to the author’s verbal complexity, in English and in delivery of smatterings of foreign words.”
New York Review of Books
A book that has the pace of a thriller and the scope of an encyclopedia…A very considerable achievement…Brilliant.”
Time
Massive, kaleidoscopic, and thoroughly readable…[Judt’s] book now becomes the definitive account of Europe’s rise from the ashes and its takeoff into an uncertain future.”
Foreign Affairs
Nobody is more qualified than Judt to combine serious descriptive history with incisive, original political analysis, to cover both Western and Eastern Europe, and to pass stinging yet informed judgments on the behavior and evasions, the deeds and the failings, of his subjects…This monumental work is a tour de force.”
New Yorker
Remarkable…The writing is vivid; the coverage—of little countries as well as of great ones—is virtually superhuman.”
SoundCommentary.com (starred review)
A riveting and totally involving listening experience as narrated by Ralph Cosham. The sheer variety of languages and place names demand the most experienced and very best of readers and Cosham, a former journalist and stage and screen actor, is more than up to this task…Cosham’s masterful reading makes this accessible to many who might find reading the nearly 850 pages intimidating or overwhelming. For anyone who listens, especially those who have lived through much of this, Postwar will be eye-opening.”
FEBRUARY 2011 - AudioFile
Understanding the complicated and extensive details of the post-WWII political mop-up in Europe requires a 43-hour investment. One could never imagine the endless issues of where to return refugees and how to try war criminals, implement the Marshall Plan, and establish 5,000 miles of borders. Few listeners can hope to absorb all the complex maneuverings, but this audiobook is still worthwhile. The task becomes more palatable with the voice of narrator Ralph Cosham. His smooth facility with the spoken word and linguistic nuance keeps one moving forward. He also rises to the author’s verbal complexity, in English and in delivery of smatterings of foreign words. J.A.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
