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|summary=Timothy Snyder interviewing fellow historian Tony Judt in his last days, producing a fascinating investigation of the 20th century.

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Though one of the book’s main objectives is to somehow ""make sense of history"", the passages about the now deceased Judt's life and development are not entirely peripheral to this. He demanded that historians, whilst ensuring that they do their job adequately, somehow convey their place in history. In leading by example, the reader is allowed to come to know about his progression through life from being an active Zionist volunteering in the Six-Day War, to reverting to life in academia as an undergraduate in Cambridge, to seeking to understand Central and Eastern European history. Besides learning about significant events in history (and being spurred to conduct some Wikipedia searches of my own), Judt’s own personal reflections enabled me to at least feel that I could understand some of the professional choices he had made, such as delving into a relatively obscure area of history rather late in life. His own wishes for his trade – that a more immersive study of Eastern European history continues – may be a reason as to why he consented to work with Snyder, a rather prominent figure in this area.

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