[Peace-discuss] Eric Hobsbawm

[David Green]

The last sentence refers to the book "Nations and Nationalisms Since 1780"
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/14/daily-mail-press-publishing
 
All of which is interesting, but misses the point. For the reason Hobsbawm is worthy of respect is that he is one of our greatest historians. At an academic level, he proved a vital force in the postwar years in upending the parochialism of the British historical profession and opening the subject up to the radical, sometimes Marxist currents of thinking in mainland Europe. Hobsbawm helped shunt history on from the dry, narrow terrain of "past politics" by approaching the past from the bottom up, seeking to analyse as well as narrate, and embracing the insights of social science. 
 
He has addressed the big, global questions and has done so in an accessible style. His trilogy on the "long 19th century" still provides among the most rewarding accounts of the French revolution, the industrial revolution, and the function of empire. It was an achievement only matched by The Age of Extremes, his chronicle of the "short 20th century", which recounted the human costs of the ideological struggle between fascism and communism. But Hobsbawm has also pioneered research into the origins of banditry and protest, the social history of jazz, geopolitics and the invention of national tradition (a plague he thinks has made "the defence of history by its professionals more urgent in politics than ever"). 


      
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