The final masterpiece by one of the leading historians and thinkers of his generation, the late Tony Judt.

Thinking the Twentieth Century unites the conflicted intellectual history of an epoch into a soaring narrative.


Two explorers set out on a journey from which only one of them will return. Their unknown land is that often fearsome continent we call the 20th Century. Their route is through their own minds and memories. Both travellers are professional historians still tormented by their own unanswered questions. They needed to talk to one another, and the time was short.

This is a book about the past, but it is also an argument for the kind of future we should strive for. Thinking the Twentieth Century is about the life of the mind - and the mindful life.