---
product_id: 4021644
title: "Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945"
price: "AR$101235"
currency: ARS
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/4021644-postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945
store_origin: AR
region: Argentina
---

# Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

**Price:** AR$101235
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- **How much does it cost?** AR$101235 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.ar](https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/4021644-postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945)

## Best For

- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times ’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century “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 Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy.

Review: Tony Judt's timeless contribution to the understanding and analysis of postwar European history. - Magnificent one-volume work on the history of postwar Europe, as starters. To say this is a generic and easy read would be a massive disservice to the author, because it's written like an academic text, the stuff you'd expect to find in college textbooks. The sheer volume of information laid out in Postwar are simply amazing, and at times overwhelming and confusing to understand - much more comprehend. This is not something you can simply finish within a week, or even a month. To the faint of heart this is a scary and intimidating book… but this is what gives it so much power and authority, actually. The truth is, Tony Judt made a compelling case on the need for Europe to reexamine and reevaluate her own past, especially in her complicity in the Holocaust, and in the bloody Yugoslavian civil war of the 1990s. Both her highs - from the economic miracles of the 1950s, to the political dynamics behind the creation of the EU; to her lows - the indifference in the Yugoslavian crisis, her (in this case Western Europe) stalling of the applications of the Eastern European states, were all exposed and laid bare. Even the messy aftermath and the end of the colonial eras (UK, France, Belgium, the Netherland to name a few), and the actual reasons behind the formation of the EU (a mostly French political project to restrain Germany) were discussed in-depth, and in detail. If one were to look for an authoritative reference on postwar European history, this would be my recommendation. The author even dedicated a few chapters into the European culture, especially of the 1960s-1970s where the generations became more "liberal" in the sense that secularism and feminism began making waves in the various European states. Judt also adeptly discussed the culture surrounding the European sentiments into the Holocaust (the book's Epilogue) - which I found both surprising and noteworthy. Surprising since I did not expect an entire chapter to be discussed on the culture and the implications of the Holocaust (the Shoah), but noteworthy because how he connected it to the issue of Europe's identity, that Europe needs to confront its own past for it to understand and chart her future - as he said it: "...the recovered memory of Europe's dead Jews has become the very definition and guarantee of the continent's restored humanity." (p.804) More than that, Judt did a good job on explaining various key events in the continent's postwar history, notably the immediate postwar reconstruction, the Nuremberg trials and subsequent de-Nazification, the creation of NATO...the birth of (the future) European Union, the beginnings of the Cold War, even the fall of Communism and the bloody Yugoslavian civil war. Almost every important event in postwar Europe (of course, up until the early 2000s only), was covered in detail (at times even a bit of overload). Even the culture and the arts (from movies up to the music movements) were also discussed. However, noteworthy and comprehensive as the book was, there were a few shortcomings by the author - of which I do not find him at fault. Some notable absences (or glossed over in minor details) were the bloody Greek civil war (the focus was on the Greek economic reconstruction and subsequent slide to dictatorship), the obscure Cod Wars between Iceland and the UK (of which Iceland somehow won the conflict), the policy of Finlandization (the political balancing act of postwar Finland to maintain her independence), the 1983 NATO Able Archer joint military exercise (that almost brought the world to the brink of nuclear war again since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis), the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (in which Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan [not a European country] relinquished their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the West), and the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade (in the height of the Kosovo War)...to name a few. I am sure there are more important events that were not mentioned by the author, these are the only notable ones I can remember. Another (though at the time minor given the year of its publication) noteworthy mistake was the Russification of Ukrainian identity, notably in the maps provided (Kyiv is spelled as Kiev, Kharkiv as Kharkov)… Again I do not blame the author for this, as it was still interchangeable (plus nobody expected that the region would descend into war...until 2014 and 2022 happened). Nevertheless, these should not take away the book's magnificent discussion and presentation of postwar European history. At least the review's fairly balanced - as it also had its own shortcomings. Overall, this is an astounding and magnificent piece of literature - a must-read and must-own for every history enthusiast out there. Despite being published in 2005, it is highly relevant to read and own in today's context, as it offered multiple invaluable lessons in how to study, understand, and analyze postwar Europe. While so much has happened since then, it's still worth reading. I'd say Ian Kershaw's The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 (the 9th installment of The Penguin History of Europe series) is the 'lighter' and more updated version of Judt's book (as the content was similar in so many chapters, yet the coverage is until 2017 - which means the 2008 Global Recession, the EU crisis, and Brexit were all mentioned) - though Kershaw's version is as bit of a heavy and comprehensive reading as Judt's (I'd suggest you need to own both books to fully appreciate European history). I said to myself that the book would take me months to finish and absorb - and it's true. Despite devoting one and a half hours everyday, it still took me 4 months to finish it (as evidenced by the sheer number of self-adhesive notes I placed next to key information and statistics throughout the book). Though it's well worth the time, and the journey. Highly recommend, and I'd like to end this by offering my everlasting gratitude and thanks to my dear officemate who recommended the book to me - without her, I'd never discover and appreciate this literary and historical masterpiece! To her, thank you for opening my horizons and knowledge on this topic - I simply could not find words that could express how much I am grateful for you. I hope this simple message will be more than enough for you! Again, highly recommend - but be warned: it's not for the faint-of-heart, or for the causal reader. If you're considering buying this - better be prepared to invest your time into it, but well-worth it at the end.
Review: A very generous book! To read and to re-read. - It is a massive book, that took me close to two months to finish. The amount of information is enormous, mind-boggling. Even though I presumed I knew quite a lot on European political history after WW2 (my background is political science), it was this book that made me aware of how little, in fact, I know, especially about the first decades following The War. I always underline information that is both of relevance and new to me - half of Tony's Judt's book is now underlined. What I didn't know prior to reading this massive work? 1) in fact how little attention and effort was spent on evaluating the colaboration with Nazi regimes in Europe - the new Europe was built on the shoulders of former Nazi functionaries (teachers, judges, officials). How much silence on specific biographies underlies the history of post-war Europe 2) how come there is so little multiethnicity in post-war Europe; 3) to what extent the Marshall plan was crucial in rebuilding Europe; 4) to what extent the rapid development of Switzerland and Sweden depended on the role these two countries played in WW2 by supplying both sides; 5) to what extent the investments made by nazi's in German scientific research, helped post-war Germany to be competitive in business. 6) How costly were the colonies for Britain; 7) the specifics of French colonialism (colonies as departments), links with the peculiar nature of their state; 8)historic reasons on why so much of the EU funds is spent on agriculture; 9) the shock that leftists of the west felt after the events of 1956 in Hugary; how they changed the public opinion; 10) extent of unemployment in Portugal, Greece before 1970 (one third of Portugal's workforce worked abroad) 11) racism and ethnic discrimination in UK and Switzerland less than 50 years ago; 12) eugenics in Europe; 13) the double standarts of western leaders regarding soviet regimes, human rights issues; 14) different approaches towards privatisation in 1980's; 15) the scepticism in the West regarding whether Germany should be reunited after 1989; 16) Holocaust - how hard it still is for many countries involved to admit the guilt also of their societies. How long it took for some (France, Netherlands, Austria)... And there is so much, much more! And it is all written in clear, easy to read style. The book is filled not just with actions, facts, but also intellectual history of Europe. Yes, from time to time you get the sense of the author's own stance on the issues, but it is never all-pervasive and always substantiated. I believe it adds to the quality of the book.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #33,911 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #9 in European Politics Books #42 in German History (Books) #277 in World War II History (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 1,368 Reviews |

## Images

![Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/815Mvo+p1jL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tony Judt's timeless contribution to the understanding and analysis of postwar European history.
*by F***S on April 23, 2023*

Magnificent one-volume work on the history of postwar Europe, as starters. To say this is a generic and easy read would be a massive disservice to the author, because it's written like an academic text, the stuff you'd expect to find in college textbooks. The sheer volume of information laid out in Postwar are simply amazing, and at times overwhelming and confusing to understand - much more comprehend. This is not something you can simply finish within a week, or even a month. To the faint of heart this is a scary and intimidating book… but this is what gives it so much power and authority, actually. The truth is, Tony Judt made a compelling case on the need for Europe to reexamine and reevaluate her own past, especially in her complicity in the Holocaust, and in the bloody Yugoslavian civil war of the 1990s. Both her highs - from the economic miracles of the 1950s, to the political dynamics behind the creation of the EU; to her lows - the indifference in the Yugoslavian crisis, her (in this case Western Europe) stalling of the applications of the Eastern European states, were all exposed and laid bare. Even the messy aftermath and the end of the colonial eras (UK, France, Belgium, the Netherland to name a few), and the actual reasons behind the formation of the EU (a mostly French political project to restrain Germany) were discussed in-depth, and in detail. If one were to look for an authoritative reference on postwar European history, this would be my recommendation. The author even dedicated a few chapters into the European culture, especially of the 1960s-1970s where the generations became more "liberal" in the sense that secularism and feminism began making waves in the various European states. Judt also adeptly discussed the culture surrounding the European sentiments into the Holocaust (the book's Epilogue) - which I found both surprising and noteworthy. Surprising since I did not expect an entire chapter to be discussed on the culture and the implications of the Holocaust (the Shoah), but noteworthy because how he connected it to the issue of Europe's identity, that Europe needs to confront its own past for it to understand and chart her future - as he said it: "...the recovered memory of Europe's dead Jews has become the very definition and guarantee of the continent's restored humanity." (p.804) More than that, Judt did a good job on explaining various key events in the continent's postwar history, notably the immediate postwar reconstruction, the Nuremberg trials and subsequent de-Nazification, the creation of NATO...the birth of (the future) European Union, the beginnings of the Cold War, even the fall of Communism and the bloody Yugoslavian civil war. Almost every important event in postwar Europe (of course, up until the early 2000s only), was covered in detail (at times even a bit of overload). Even the culture and the arts (from movies up to the music movements) were also discussed. However, noteworthy and comprehensive as the book was, there were a few shortcomings by the author - of which I do not find him at fault. Some notable absences (or glossed over in minor details) were the bloody Greek civil war (the focus was on the Greek economic reconstruction and subsequent slide to dictatorship), the obscure Cod Wars between Iceland and the UK (of which Iceland somehow won the conflict), the policy of Finlandization (the political balancing act of postwar Finland to maintain her independence), the 1983 NATO Able Archer joint military exercise (that almost brought the world to the brink of nuclear war again since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis), the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (in which Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan [not a European country] relinquished their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the West), and the 1999 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade (in the height of the Kosovo War)...to name a few. I am sure there are more important events that were not mentioned by the author, these are the only notable ones I can remember. Another (though at the time minor given the year of its publication) noteworthy mistake was the Russification of Ukrainian identity, notably in the maps provided (Kyiv is spelled as Kiev, Kharkiv as Kharkov)… Again I do not blame the author for this, as it was still interchangeable (plus nobody expected that the region would descend into war...until 2014 and 2022 happened). Nevertheless, these should not take away the book's magnificent discussion and presentation of postwar European history. At least the review's fairly balanced - as it also had its own shortcomings. Overall, this is an astounding and magnificent piece of literature - a must-read and must-own for every history enthusiast out there. Despite being published in 2005, it is highly relevant to read and own in today's context, as it offered multiple invaluable lessons in how to study, understand, and analyze postwar Europe. While so much has happened since then, it's still worth reading. I'd say Ian Kershaw's The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 (the 9th installment of The Penguin History of Europe series) is the 'lighter' and more updated version of Judt's book (as the content was similar in so many chapters, yet the coverage is until 2017 - which means the 2008 Global Recession, the EU crisis, and Brexit were all mentioned) - though Kershaw's version is as bit of a heavy and comprehensive reading as Judt's (I'd suggest you need to own both books to fully appreciate European history). I said to myself that the book would take me months to finish and absorb - and it's true. Despite devoting one and a half hours everyday, it still took me 4 months to finish it (as evidenced by the sheer number of self-adhesive notes I placed next to key information and statistics throughout the book). Though it's well worth the time, and the journey. Highly recommend, and I'd like to end this by offering my everlasting gratitude and thanks to my dear officemate who recommended the book to me - without her, I'd never discover and appreciate this literary and historical masterpiece! To her, thank you for opening my horizons and knowledge on this topic - I simply could not find words that could express how much I am grateful for you. I hope this simple message will be more than enough for you! Again, highly recommend - but be warned: it's not for the faint-of-heart, or for the causal reader. If you're considering buying this - better be prepared to invest your time into it, but well-worth it at the end.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A very generous book! To read and to re-read.
*by I***A on April 9, 2012*

It is a massive book, that took me close to two months to finish. The amount of information is enormous, mind-boggling. Even though I presumed I knew quite a lot on European political history after WW2 (my background is political science), it was this book that made me aware of how little, in fact, I know, especially about the first decades following The War. I always underline information that is both of relevance and new to me - half of Tony's Judt's book is now underlined. What I didn't know prior to reading this massive work? 1) in fact how little attention and effort was spent on evaluating the colaboration with Nazi regimes in Europe - the new Europe was built on the shoulders of former Nazi functionaries (teachers, judges, officials). How much silence on specific biographies underlies the history of post-war Europe 2) how come there is so little multiethnicity in post-war Europe; 3) to what extent the Marshall plan was crucial in rebuilding Europe; 4) to what extent the rapid development of Switzerland and Sweden depended on the role these two countries played in WW2 by supplying both sides; 5) to what extent the investments made by nazi's in German scientific research, helped post-war Germany to be competitive in business. 6) How costly were the colonies for Britain; 7) the specifics of French colonialism (colonies as departments), links with the peculiar nature of their state; 8)historic reasons on why so much of the EU funds is spent on agriculture; 9) the shock that leftists of the west felt after the events of 1956 in Hugary; how they changed the public opinion; 10) extent of unemployment in Portugal, Greece before 1970 (one third of Portugal's workforce worked abroad) 11) racism and ethnic discrimination in UK and Switzerland less than 50 years ago; 12) eugenics in Europe; 13) the double standarts of western leaders regarding soviet regimes, human rights issues; 14) different approaches towards privatisation in 1980's; 15) the scepticism in the West regarding whether Germany should be reunited after 1989; 16) Holocaust - how hard it still is for many countries involved to admit the guilt also of their societies. How long it took for some (France, Netherlands, Austria)... And there is so much, much more! And it is all written in clear, easy to read style. The book is filled not just with actions, facts, but also intellectual history of Europe. Yes, from time to time you get the sense of the author's own stance on the issues, but it is never all-pervasive and always substantiated. I believe it adds to the quality of the book.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fascinating examination of post-war Europe
*by R***K on June 3, 2018*

Judt's exploration of postwar Europe is a fascinating examination of the events, people and culture that emerged after World War II. The book is at its best when examining the cultural changes that occurred in the European countries post war and the rise and fall of communism. It dispatches many of the immediate post-war myths about communist Europe and brings a slightly new perspective to that era. The book suffers at times from a lack of editing and some self-indulgent bits. For example, Judt seems determined to let us know how many films he has watched in his lifetime and how this all relates to his central thesis. The ending also falls down where he starts to make some sweeping generalizations and empirical claims that seem to lack any data to support them. Reading this book well after it was first published it is clear that Judt did not foresee more recent events such as Brexit. The Epilogue is something that I will leave other readers to evaluate. It seemed at times overwrought to the point of almost being maudlin. Overall, the book is worth the journey although I'm not sure it was worth the more than 800 pages between the covers. The photos were wonderful and not your typical pictures that you might find in most other post-war books. A good read although one I may not revisit in the future.

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/4021644-postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945](https://www.desertcart.com.ar/products/4021644-postwar-a-history-of-europe-since-1945)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Argentina*
*Store origin: AR*
*Last updated: 2026-10-20*