num_pages: 400
description: A great thinkers final testament: a characteristically wise and forthright collection of essays spanning a career of extraordinary intellectual engagement Tony Judts first collection of essays Reappraisals was centered on twentieth-century Europe in history and memory. Some of Judts most prominent and indeed controversial essays felt outside of the scope of Reappraisals 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. Now in When the Facts Change 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 lan. 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. When the Facts Change 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.
language: English
title: When the Facts Change: Essays, 1995-2010
publisher: Penguin Press