Tony Judt Quotes
I believe that if we think back to the period from F.D.R. through, let us say, Bush I, until the end of the Cold War, we lived through an artificial period in which American interests and European interests essentially dovetailed.
Judt, Tony, and Timothy Snyder. Thinking the Twentieth Century. Penguin Press, 2012.
He was not attributing this to any particular polices or the United States. The U. S. had the so large and was such a force on so many areas that most things the U. S. did would potentially affect every oither nation in the world. There was almost no situation in the world in which the U, S, position and extent of invlovement would not affect the countires involved. At the same time the rapidly accelerating technological change that is changine everything is being led by United States scientists, technologists, and corporations. So if technological change was destabilizing which it was in most societies including America's the United States was the driver. And then, the Presidential election victory of Donald Trump, who had a a stated practice being inconsistant on many things, of aggressivly looking for new ways of doing things in American politics (and had been an exemplar during the campaign), and a strong reluctance to have broad general policies that woild guide his policies and intentions. American politics was changing more than usual with both major political parties were going through major reinvntions and struggles to define themselves. The United States was, moreso than any other country, culturally used to rapid change througout the society and still thriving. But for most other cultures, these things all together could determine the perception of stability and the lac k thereof in most of the world. But even the methods of dealing with climate change which is a source of anxiety for most nations, realsitically depends on what the United States will do or not do and that lack of certainty or even liklihood to prediuct affects people the world over.
Tony Robert Judt FBA was an English-American historian, essayist and university professor who specialised in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University, and Director of NYU's Erich Maria Remarque Institute. He was a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books. In 1996 Judt was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2007 a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
