For Tony Judt the writing of history is also the making of it. It is a great pity that he has been taken from us just when we could proifit the most from his unflagging intellectual and moral energies

Tony Judt 's last book, Ill Fares The Land, dictated under the impact of his fatal motor-neurone illness, reflects on why social democracy has failed to offer effective resistance to the onslaught of late 20th century capitalism. The following is an excerpt from his book.