Another Tony Judt Obit

This one's at the home of many of his essays, the New York Review of Books.

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More Tony Judt

The Guardian has a good obit.

I particularly like this line:

By his later years, Judt's adherence to scholarly standards, along with his contempt for charlatans such as Louis Althusser and for academic fashion, made him seem a conservative figure to more modish colleagues. But far from making the notorious journey to the right, he was preaching social democracy to the end of his life. He was a reactionary only in reacting against intellectual dishonesty and imposture (Emphasis mine.)

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Tony Motherfucking Judt, Kick-Ass Chronicler of History, Is Dead at 62

I've written a little bit about him here before. His NYT obit is here.

ALS got him. It took two years. I feel robbed, frankly, but relieved he's free from that prison. I read the news on the subway last night, and goddamn if I didn't start crying. Being an intellectual and a writer ain't like being an athlete; he could have kept cranking out awesome for another 20 years.

He could think and write with the best I've ever read. Only some of his essays at the NYRB are available for free, and I'd been putting off pulling the trigger on a subscription--$69--but I figure I will now. I'd also been lazy about picking up his latest book, Ill Fares The Land, so I'll probably do that too. You can read the opening chapter here.

And to my Jewish friends: I highly recommend his essays on Israel and American foreign policy. He took a lot of shit from pro-Israel-no-matter-what writers, politicians, and hacks. His positions are nuanced and thoughtful, and it pains me to think that part of his legacy will be his "controversial" views, where "controversial" = not parroting AIPAC or the ADL's dogmatic positions.
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Tony Motherfucking Judt

I've banged the drum here for my day-to-day politics bloggers, Glenn Greenwald and Digby.

Now I want to introduce you to Tony Judt, one of my big picture guys, who happens to be my favorite writer right now.

He has written a massively well-regarded work about post-WWII Europe, titled, appropriately, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. It's quite the page-turner--no easy task for an 896 page history spanning 60 years and an entire continent.

He contributes to the New York Review of Books (only some pieces are available online for free--when I can rub two nickels together I plan to subscribe).

His latest work, Ill Fares The Land, just came out. I plan to read it, but I have read this excerpt from its first chapter, as well as this related essay.

I highly, highly recommend reading both.

And he is quadriplegic due to advanced Lou Gehrig's Disease. Take that, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis!
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