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Behind the long ‘Social-Democratic moment’ in Western Europe there had lain not just pragmatic faith in the public sector, or allegiance to Keynesian economic principles, but a sense of the shape of the age that influenced and for many decades stifled even its would-be critics.

— Tony Judt Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)

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More quotes by Tony Judt

‘Socialism’ is a 19th century idea with a 20th century history.

Ill Fares The Land (2010)

Inequality is corrosive. It rots societies from within.

Ill Fares the Land (2010)

The greatest beneficiaries of the modern welfare state, after all, were the middle classes.

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)

The paradox of the welfare state, and indeed of all the social democratic (and Christian Democratic) states of Europe, was quite simply that their success would over time undermine their appeal.

What Is Living and What Is Dead in Social Democracy? (2009)

Sixty years after Hitler's death, his war and its consequences are entering history. Postwar in Europe lasted a very long time, but it is finally coming to a close.

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tony Judt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.