Historian, writer, intellectual and philosopher Tony Judt has previously written a dozen or so award-winning books. He died in 2010, the year this book was published. It's a brilliantly written, elegant call to arms about our current politics and pursuit of material self-interest. He focuses mostly on America, where he lived later in his life. He sets out what has been lost since Reagan/Thatcher, and calls for a return to social democratic ideals. It's a remarkable, thought provoking book, which seems more urgent now than it did even when it was published a mere 8 years ago. His ideals are even further away than they were then.