The inaugural Tony Judt Lecture on Europe: Charles King on political ideas in the 21st century

In his 1950 essay “Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century,” Isaiah Berlin worried that politicians and thinkers had given up on wrestling with answers to life’s great questions, and that fascist, communist, and liberal states all peddled rival certainties about the basis of government, sources of legitimacy, and balance between order and freedom. Three-quarters of a century later, does Berlin’s theory still apply? How might liberals and conservatives in Europe and the United States refresh their accounts of political and social life amidst global turmoil, social and economic change, and renewed challenges from the progressive left and nationalist right?

On Friday, September 20, the Brookings Institution will convene its inaugural Tony Judt Lecture on Europe with a keynote address by Charles King. After the address, Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, will join King for a conversation, followed by a panel of distinguished experts.

King is a professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University. He is an expert of comparative politics and international affairs and the bestselling author of author of eight books, including “Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul” (W. W. Norton, 2014).

Tony Judt was a historian and essayist who served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies at New York University and director of NYU’s Remarque Institute. Author of many books including the critically acclaimed “Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945” (Penguin, 2005), “The Memory Chalet” (Penguin, 2011), “Ill Fares the Land” (Penguin, 2011), and “Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century” (Penguin, 2009). Judt died in 2010.

The Tony Judt Lecture on Europe seeks to interrogate challenges and trends in European politics and society by featuring a prominent intellectual addressing these issues followed by a brief moderated conversation with the lecturer and a panel incorporating additional voices into the conversation.

Viewers can submit questions by emailing [email protected] or on X using #USEurope.