Tony Judt, world renowned scholar of European history, passed away last Friday at his home in Manhattan. The author of many books and a trenchant political columnist known for his outspoken views on Israeli policy, as an article published earlier this year in New York Magazine notes, Prof. Judt made a reputation for himslef in academic and non-academic circles alike as “one of the most admired and denounced thinkers living in New York City”.
In 2008, Judt was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but until his passing, maintained a constant stream of output, producing articles for the NYRB, lecturing, and working on a new book—a follow up to his most famous work Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945.
In 1998 the University of Chicago Press published Judt’s The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century, a book that looks at the lives of three French philosophers—Leon Blum, Albert Camus, and Raymond Aron—to demonstrate their heroic commitment to personal integrity and moral responsibility unfettered by the difficult political exigencies of their time.
Many major news outlets have published articles and obituaries to mark the scholar’s passing. Find out more about Prof. Judt’s fascinating life and work at the New York Times, the Guardian.co.uk, The Chronicle of Higher Education, or the L.A. Times.