Finally finished Postwar, by Tony Judt. Took well over a month, but boy was it worth it. The book is a clear, authoritative overview of a history I know a little bit about from my solipsistic American viewpoint. It's not going in my pantheon of favorite books or anything, but it's the kind of meat-and-potatoes reading that I feel makes me a better person.
To continue with a variant on that metaphor for a minute, it hangs some meat on the bones of what I knew about Europe after WWII. For example, I knew Lech Walesa was a major figure in the anti-Communist movement in Poland. But I probably couldn't have told you what Solidarity was, really, or that his politics weren't exactly all kumbaya. I knew Francois Mitterand was president of France at some point, but I didn't know how slippery he was, how effective he was as a politician of his own personality.
Great read.
To continue with a variant on that metaphor for a minute, it hangs some meat on the bones of what I knew about Europe after WWII. For example, I knew Lech Walesa was a major figure in the anti-Communist movement in Poland. But I probably couldn't have told you what Solidarity was, really, or that his politics weren't exactly all kumbaya. I knew Francois Mitterand was president of France at some point, but I didn't know how slippery he was, how effective he was as a politician of his own personality.
Great read.
