Thinking the Twentieth Century
Intellectuals and Politics in the Twentieth Century

Thinking the Twentieth Century: Intellectuals and Politics in the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder (Hardback) (ISBN: 9780434017423)

The twentieth century is an age of ideas - a time when, for good and for ill, the thoughts of the few reigned over the lives of the many. This title presents the triumphs and the failures of prominent intellectuals, explaining both their ideas and the risks of their political commitments.

As forgotten ideas are revisited and fashionable trends scrutinized, the shape of a century emerges. Judt and Snyder draw us deep into their analysis, making us feel that we too are part of the conversation. We become aware of the obligations of the present to the past, and the force of historical perspective and moral considerations in the critique and reform of society, then and now. In restoring and indeed exemplifying the best of intellectual life in the twentieth century, "Thinking the Twentieth Century" opens pathways to a moral life for the twenty-first. 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.