Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956

Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956 is a nonfiction book written by Tony Judt and was originally published by University of California Press in 1992.[1][2][3][4][5][6] On page 11, Judt describes this book as, "an essay on intellectual irresponsibility, a study of the moral condition of the intelligentsia in postwar France."[4][7]

Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956
Image of 1992 book jacket
1992 Book jacket
AuthorTony Judt
CountryU.S.A.
SubjectIntellectuals—Political activity—France—History—20th century.

Communism and intellectuals—France—History—20th century.

France—Intellectual life—20th century.
GenreNon-fiction
Set inFrance, Soviet Union
Published1992
PublisherUniversity of California Press, New York University Press
Pages348
ISBN978-0-520-07921-2 052-0-079-213
OCLC802743992
944.082
LC ClassDC33.7 .J84 1992
WebsiteOfficial website

This book is currently published by the New York University Press.[8]

Synopsis

In Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956, Judt moved away from social history toward intellectual history, and from the endorsement of French Left and Marxist traditions to their critique. In Past Imperfect, he castigated French intellectuals of the postwar era, above all Jean-Paul Sartre, for their "self-imposed moral amnesia".[9] Judt criticized what he considered blind faith in Joseph Stalin's communism. In Judt's reading, French thinkers such as Sartre were blinded by their own provincialism, and unable to see that their calls for intellectual authenticity should have required them to interrogate their own attachment to communism and criticize the Soviet Union for its policies in postwar eastern Europe.[3]

Reception

According to David L. Schalk, contributing to The American Historical Review, this book received a "laudatory front-page review in The New York Times Book Review."[4] Jean-Francois Sirinelli, a respected professional historian, reviewed this book for the French publication Le Monde and found it deserving of praise.[4]

William Grimes of The New York Times writes: "[Past Imperfect]" is fluidly written, with a strong narrative drive and an insistent, polemical edge..." Also, he writes that this book and another that Judt wrote, The Burden of Responsibility "...established Mr. Judt as a historian whose ability to see the present in the past gave his work an unusual air of immediacy."[10]

See also

Further reading

References
  1. Golsan, Richard J. (1994). "Reviewed work: Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944-1956, Tony Judt". Substance. 23 (2): 125–127. doi:10.2307/3685077. JSTOR 3685077.
  2. Gendreau, Bernard A. (1994). "A French Moment Contested". The Review of Politics. 56 (2): 394–398. doi:10.1017/S003467050001857X. JSTOR 1407832. S2CID 145578774.
  3. Wall, Irwin M. (1994). "From Anti-Americanism to Francophobia: The Saga of French and American Intellectuals". French Historical Studies. 18 (4): 1083–1100. doi:10.2307/286729. JSTOR 286729.
  4. Schalk, David L. (1994). "Reviewed work: Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956, Tony Judt". The American Historical Review. 99 (3): 915–916. doi:10.2307/2167845. JSTOR 2167845.
  5. Babcock, Arthur E. (1994). "Reviewed work: Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956, Tony Judt". The French Review. 67 (4): 724–725. JSTOR 396980.
  6. Staff. "Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  7. Romano, C. (1993, April 26). Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944–1956. The Nation, 256(16), 562+.
  8. "Past Imperfect French Intellectuals, 1944–1956 by Tony Judt". New York University Press. May 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2022.
  9. Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944–1956, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
  10. Grimes, William (7 August 2010). "Tony Judt, Chronicler of History, is Dead at 62". The New York Times.
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