Tony Judt, author of 'Postwar,' dies at 62

[August 09, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The highly praised and controversial historian Tony Judt has died in New York.

A New York University spokesman says Judt died Friday night due to complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 62.

Judt was a professor of European studies at the school. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 for his nearly 900-page history of modern Europe, "Postwar."

Judt continued to write a series of personal essays early this year despite a two-year battle with ALS that left him paralyzed.

His illness and determination to tell the tale brought sympathy and admiration for a historian not known for sparing feelings.

Over his career he had taken on communists, free marketers, supporters of the Iraq War and, most contentiously, Israel.

[Associated Press; By HILLEL ITALIE]

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