Tony Judt’s death in 2010 deprived the world of one of its most thoughtful historians and credible intellectuals. The title of his posthumous essay collection is well chosen: Judt constructed theories from facts, not from other theories, but was mindful of the constant pulse of change. Judt was cosmopolitan but not rootless, knowledgeable in many languages and traditions. He offered hard clarity instead of delusions, exploded artificial distinctions between left and right and apportioned credit and blame in elegantly composed prose and carefully considered conclusions. His critique of the chronically stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, written in 2002, remains trenchant today.
