Tribune, the left-wing British political journal, last week reviewed a new book by historian Tony Judt on Europe post-1945 (Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945). Under the headline 'A continent mortgaged to its terrible past', reviewer Robert Taylor describes Judt's analysis of the birth of the European Union out of the remnants of six years of war:

Judt, perhaps more than any other, sets out a stark, almost unbelievable picture of a shattered continent close to utter annihilation in what must have seemed to many millions of survivors as the start of year zero. It is estimated that about 36.5 million Europeans died between 1939 and 1945 from war-related causes and more than half of them were non-combatant civilians. … Epidemics and chronic malnutrition stalked the continent. Civil wars and social disorders threatened to inflict with further misery. Many cities were little more than piles of rubble by 1945."

Taylor also ties his review to the modern EU:

"At a time when Europe as an issue is being trivialised in the British political debate, Professor Tony Judt has written a masterpiece on the history of our continent since the end of the Second Word War. It deserves a wide readership, not least among the Little Englanders and sceptics who are now once more dominant in both the Labour and Conservative parties."