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Tony Judt Papers

Call Number

MC.233

Dates

1976-2019, inclusive
; 1995-2008, bulk

Creator

Judt, Tony, 1948-2010
Homans, Jennifer (Role: Donor)

Extent

95.5 Linear Feet in 120 boxes

Language of Materials

Materials are primarily in English with some materials in Mandarin, Romanian, Dutch, French, Hungarian, German, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Estonian, Polish, Italian, Latvian, Turkish, Slovenian, Swedish, and Finnish.

Abstract

The Tony Judt Papers contains research, notes, correspondence, and other material related his work as a historian, professor and essayist. The collection spans the start of his teaching career in 1976, to his death in 2010, with heavy focus on the 1990s and 2000s.

Biographical Note

Tony Robert Judt was a historian, essayist and public intellectual. He established the Remarque Institute at New York University and served as its first director. He taught at NYU from 1987 until his death from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2010. Judt focused on French intellectual and 20th century European affairs in his teaching and writing, both academic and popular. He is perhaps best known for his 800-plus page history of Europe, Postwar.

Judt was born in London in 1948 to a middle class secular Jewish family with Eastern European roots. He spent his later teen years in Israel, volunteering as an interpreter during the Six-Day War. Judt later became disillusioned by the Zionist movement and left-wing politics. Later, he often wrote about this ideological change in the context of his identification with social democracy.

After Israel, Judt returned to Europe to study and received degrees in history from the University of Cambridge as well as École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He taught at Cambridge, University of California, Davis, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Oxford before coming to NYU. For a time in the 1980s, Judt lived in Prague and Vienna where he witnessed the political transformations of the time and became more focused on Eastern Europe in his studies and teaching.

Judt began his tenure at NYU as a professor in the Department of History. He taught at the Institute of French Studies as well, briefly serving as director in 1989. He also chaired the Department of History (1992-1993) and served as Dean for the Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Science (1993-1995). In 2006, Judt was given the title University Professor, "a rank conferred upon outstanding NYU faculty whose scholarship extends across traditional disciplinary boundaries and who are internationally recognized scholars and teachers."

In 1992, Judt was appointed to the Erich Maria Remarque Chair in European Studies and helped establish the Remarque Institute three years later. The Institute's purpose is to "support and promote the study of Europe and to encourage and facilitate communication between Americans and Europeans." Remarque's widow, Paulette Goddard, bequeathed funding for the creation of the Institute. Remarque offers fellowships and hosts programs, lectures, seminars and other events.

Judt authored and edited numerous books, 13 of which are represented in this collection. His work in French socialism and intellectual history is reflected in his earlier books including Socialism in Provence (1979), Marxism and the French Left (1979), Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals, 1944-1956 (1992), and Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century (1998).

Throughout his career at NYU, Judt wrote prolifically for outlets such as The New York Review of Books, The New York Times and The National Review, often tying current events to history. He weighed in heavily on the September 11 terrorist attacks, war in Iraq, and matters in American and European policy. He wrote for academic journals, as well. In 2008, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top 100 public intellectuals. Judt won the George Orwell Special Prize for Lifetime Achievement in 2009.

Considered a public intellectual by many, Judt always said he thought of himself as a teacher first. In 2003, he was criticized for his New York Review of Books article entitled "Israel: The Alternative," in which he described the country as an "anachronism" and proposed a bi-national one-state solution. In 2006, two lectures he was set to give on the topic were canceled due to complaints from Jewish groups over his stance on Israel. A public discussion in the press followed.

Postwar, published in 2005, was the culmination of more than a decade of research and thought. It was Judt's last work of original historical research that he was able to physically complete himself, due to his illness. In 2008, he published a collection of essays that had mostly appeared in New York Review of Books entitled Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century. Later that year, he was diagnosed with ALS, but continued writing with the help of assistants to transcribe. He wrote about his illness and turned more toward autobiographical essay writing in the final years of his life, dictating many articles.

In October 2009, bound to a wheelchair and connected to a breathing apparatus, Judt delivered the annual Remarque Institute Lecture, his last public lecture, to an audience at NYU. He delivered it from memory. The lecture, entitled "What is Living and What is Dead in Social Democracy" was turned into the book Ill Fares the Land. Another book of Judt's previously published essays, The Memory Chalet, was published in 2010. It contains a mix of personal and historical essays. The final book of Judt's writing, Thinking the Twentieth Century, was adapted from Judt's conversations with colleague Timothy Snyder about his life, intellectual journey, and work just prior to his death. It was published posthumously in 2012.

Judt died August 6, 2010. He had two children with wife Jennifer Homans—Daniel and Nicholas.

Arrangement

This collection is separated into 14 series, loosely arranged by Judt's type of work. Several series are further divided because of the manner in which the material was originally filed or because of their breadth. See series and subseries notes for further explication.

Series IX: 2016 Accretion of Unprocessed Books was arranged in the original order in which it was received from the donor, and has not been arranged by an archivist. Original notation supplied by the donor att the box level has been retained.

Arrangement

  1. Books
  2. Articles/Essays
  3. Subject Files
  4. Teaching Files
  5. Lectures/Conferences/Addresses
  6. Administrative Files
  7. Correspondence
  8. Press, Interviews
  9. Multimedia
  10. Bibliography File

Scope and Contents

This collection contains research, notes, correspondence, and other material related to Tony Judt's work as a professor, essayist and historian. The collection spans the start of his career in 1976, to his death in 2010, with heavy focus on the 1990s and 2000s.

Nearly half of the collection consists of research material and notes for Judt's books, namely Postwar. There is little material related to his personal life. Approximately one-quarter is research and notes for articles published in periodicals such as The New York Review of Books and Times Literary Supplement. The correspondence in the collection mostly comes from readers and colleagues, often commenting on his work.

Judt's teaching files are also represented and contain syllabi, reading lists and lecture notes. There are also administrative files from Judt's tenure as director of the Remarque Institute, but those are subject to a 20-year restriction period.

See notes at the series level for additional details.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is currently closed to researchers.

Use Restrictions

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the creator are maintained by New York University. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from New York University Archives, (212) 998-2646, university-archives@nyu.edu.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date (if known); The Tony Judt Papers; MC 233; Box number; folder number; New York University Archives

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials from Judt's home and the offices of the Remarque Institute (sometimes through the assistance of Jennifer Homans) were initially donated to the New York University Archives in January 2013 (accession 13.004), while accretions of materials were donated in March 2013 (accession 13.009), April 2016 (accession 2016.017), May 2016 (accession 2016.020), September 2016 (Accession 2016.027), January 2017 (accession 2017.015), and March 2022 (accession 2022.012).

Custodial History

The material in this collection originated from Judt's office at the Remarque Institute and his home. A significant portion was appraised and inventoried by a private party in 2011. The collection initially arrived at the University Archives in 2013 with accretions of materials arriving later in 2013, 2016, and 2017.

Collection processed by

Katie Ehrlich

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:53:45 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English.

Processing Note

Original order was not always present but was maintained where possible. Most of the material related to Postwar was filed and housed together prior to processing, while correspondence, material from Judt's lectures, classes and other books were somewhat scattered. Administrative files, student files and much of the correspondence had their own filing system and likely came from the Remarque Institute offices. The order of these files was maintained. The folder titles Judt created were retained throughout the collection when possible. However, many titles lacked sufficient information and some did not match the folder contents. In these cases, additional detail was added. In other cases, loose material was integrated into the proper series and/or subseries, where discernible, and given folder titles. In January 2017, an accretion of unmarked books arrived at 20 Cooper Square and were rehoused in archival record cartons before being shelved. In June 2017, the books, remaining in the order in which they were received, were surveyed, rehoused spine down, and described. Please see notes at the series level for additional processing details.

Revisions to this Guide

June 2017: Updated by Andrea Kutsenkow to include materials from Accession 2017.015. These materials were added as Series XIII. 2017 Accretion of Books.
March 2022: Record updated by Rachel Searcy to reflect 2022 accretion

Repository

New York University Archives
New York University Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012