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Iron Man

The remarkable Tony Judt

by
Marc Tracy
March 08, 2010
Judt in 2006.(Charlie Rose)
Judt in 2006.(Charlie Rose)

Tablet Magazine contributing editor Wesley Yang has published an outstanding profile of Tony Judt, the brilliant public intellectual who has been stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease, in New York. A part of me wants to single out what he says about Israel and his (in)famous 2003 essay calling for a single bi-national state; and, to be sure, what he has to say remains provocative and controversial. But I don’t want to seem to narrow this utterly remarkable man. Instead, I’d like to point to what he says about his forthcoming short book on the need for social democracy:

“I am a little caught between satisfaction at my newly increased reach and mild irritation at the reason for it,” he says. “I understand the sense in which it seems as though I am in a hurry. But as you’ll see when you read the book, I am quite convinced that the urgency lies in the external world and all I am doing is drawing attention to it.”

Read the whole thing.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.