Tony Judt, controversial historian and author of Postwar,’ dies at age 62
By Hillel Italie, APSaturday, August 7, 2010
Tony Judt, author of ‘Postwar,’ dies at 62
NEW YORK — The highly praised and controversial historian Tony Judt has died in New York.
A New York University spokesman says Judt died Friday night due to complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 62.
Judt was a professor of European studies at the school. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 for his nearly 900-page history of modern Europe, “Postwar.”
Judt continued to write a series of personal essays early this year despite a two-year battle with ALS that left him paralyzed.
His illness and determination to tell the tale brought sympathy and admiration for a historian not known for sparing feelings.
Over his career he had taken on communists, free marketers, supporters of the Iraq War and, most contentiously, Israel.
