Unquiet Bodies 
Thomas Laqueur
- Retroactive Justice: Prehistory of Post-Communism by István Rév Buy this book
I should say at the outset that I know István Rév; that I have walked with him through the cemeteries of Budapest and have seen in his company some of the graves he writes about. He is a remarkable man, the product of a culture and a time in which one either drowned or saved oneself through erudition, wit, irony and an unremitting conversation with history. I once told him that I envied the political exigency of his professional life; he replied that he envied me – this was pre 9/11 – for living in a society where one didn’t have to be on one’s guard every minute.
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Thomas Laqueur is the Helen Fawcett Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he writes about and teaches European cultural history.
Other articles by this contributor:
The Old Country · the troublesome marriage of Poles and Jews
Lectures about Heaven · Forgiving Germany
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