Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Tony Judt

Quote by Tony Judt

Work

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

This book provides an in-depth exploration of the political, social, and cultural changes that have shaped Europe since 1945. It covers the end of World War II, the Cold War, the rise and fall of communism, and the European Union's development. more

Author

Tony Judt
Tony Judt

Tony Judt was an accomplished historian renowned for his profound insights and critical analyses of 20th-century European history. His work covered a wide range of themes from the French Revolution to the end of the Cold War, with a particular focus on issues such as democracy, political freedom, and moral responsibility. more

You May Also Like

“Lurking beneath the surface of every society, including ours, is the passionate yearning for a nationalist cause that exalts us, the kind that war alone is able to deliver. It reduces and at times erases the anxiety of individual consciousness. We abandon individual responsibility for a shared, unquestioned communal enterprise, however morally dubious.”

WarPurposeMeaningNationalism
Book:War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
Create image

“War is necrophilia. And this necrophilia is central to soldiering, just as it is central to the makeup of suicide bombers and terrorists. The necrophilia is hidden under platitudes about duty or comradeship. It awaits, especially in moments when we seem to have little to live for and no hope, or in moments when the intoxication of war is at its pitch, to be unleashed. When we spend long enough in war it comes to us as a kind of release, a fatal and seductive embrace that can consummate the long flirtation in war with our own destruction. The ancient Greeks had a word for such a drive. They called it ekpyrosis - to be consumed by a ball of fire. They used the word to describe heroes.”

WarSelf DestructionEkpyrosis
Book:War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
Create image

“І раптом мені стукнула в голову егоїстична, по-романтичному зухвала думка — про своєрідне відшкодування. Його ж таки треба вділяти соратникам, які жертвують своє найсокровенніше задля Держави. Відплачувати їм треба найвищим і найціннішим із усього, чого тільки можна запрагнути, — славою й почестями. Якщо слава й почесті служать достатньою втіхою покаліченому на війні солдатові, то чом би їм не послужити в такий самий спосіб людині, покаліченій внутрішньо?”

WarTotalitarianismDystopiaState
Book:Kallocain
Create image