Thinking the Twentieth Century
/That's the title of a book I've been reading, and I can't remember when a book has last made me think so hard. The book is a conversation between Tony Judt and Tomothy Snyder, both frighteningly well;-read intellectuals, with just enough difference in their views to make it interesting. But it's not an amiable fireside chat. The conversations took place in the last months of Judt's life, when he was incapable of writing. They follow a dual path - tracing his own varied and impressive life, but also mapping the intellectual territory over which he has ranged. If you want to meet fascinating ideas from writers you've never heard of, this is the place to go. But there's also polemic and current debate, tackled in a lively and uncompromising way. This is a book for life. I got it from the library, but very soon decided that I needed my own copy to keep. I often say I plan to read a book again some time, but never actually get round to it. In the case of this one, i mean it.