Product Description

THE AGE OF EXTREMES is eminent historian Eric Hobsbawm's personal vision of the twentieth century. Remarkable in its scope, and breathtaking in its depth of knowledge, this immensely rewarding book reviews the uniquely destructive and creative nature of the troubled twentieth century and makes challenging predicitions for the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7808 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 627 pages

Review
'A magnificent piece of historical exposition... an essential read.' - Independent 'A masterpiece' - Guardian 'A brilliant and stimulating book.' - Financial Times 'The power of Hobsbawm's exploration of the age of hot and cold wars lies in its brilliant synthesis of familiar, though sometimes forgotten, facts and ideas. It combines an Olympian, multi-lingual erudition and an addictive, readable style.' - Ben Pimlott, Independent on Sunday Books of the Year 'The best account of our calamitous century ... A marvellously imaginative set of essays on the period from 1924 to the collapse of Communism. For Hobsbawm, this constitutes virtually the history of his own lifetime and ideas; and he draws the threads together with subtlety, compassion and a gentle, quizzical wit.' - John Simpson, Spectator Books of the Year 'A magnificent piece of historical exposition ... an essential read ... Hobsbawm is a master historian and his version of events is thrilling.' - Brian Appleyard, The Independent 'It is a chastening thought that this book itself, with its staggering erudition, lucid prose and sanity of vision, may bear witness to a world which a brash postmodern culture is already in the process of burying" - Terry Eagleton, The Sunday Times

About the Author
Eric Hobsbawn is a fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he taught until retirement at Birkbeck College, University of London, and since then at the New York School for Social Reseach in New York.

Customer Reviews

An incredible panorama of the 20th Century.
The depth and breadth of the author's knowledge and research make this an awesome, if at times heavy, book.

For me, its greatest asset is the way that this book takes familiar elements and weaves them into a coherent whole. The individual portraits presented in this book are detailed in themselves, but when they are portrayed as a single panorama of the twentieth century it is incredible to behold.

This detail is also the book's downside. In those sections where I had too little existing knowledge to build upon I found the prose too dense and anecdotes distracting - but that may say more for my history than the author's prose.

If you are looking for an superficial way to put the events of the twentieth century in context, then this book is not for you. But if what you seek is a way of building and interlinking your existing knowledge of the twentieth century then you will certainly not be disappointed by this amazing book.

A well argued case
The research which has gone into this book is amazing. The author has lived through almost all of the age he discusses and uses frequent personal anecdotes both to illustrate and provide reason for his views. The book argues a strong case, the central thesis being that the events of the twentieth century are without precedent in their scope and speed, and that their momentum cannot last for the sake of humanity. Although Hobsbawn's political and academic bias is obvious; the long narratives on the Soviet Union and frequent examples using Latin American countries being cases in point, his arguement is both compelling and well researched. An essential read both for those who wish to understand the past, and the increasing numbers, who, given recent events would like an insight into the choices which face us in the future.

A must read ...
I recommend this book to everyone who wishes to understand (or at least begin to do so) the 20th century... In my opinion, that is an imperative, because if we don't understand our past, we won't be able to see our present clearly, and we will also be deprived from a good perspective regarding our future. As Hobsbwam says, things "can only be understood as part of a particular historical context".

In "The Age of Extremes", Hobsbawm's explains us his idea that the 20th century began in 1914 (with the outbreak of World WarI), and ended in 1991 (with the collapse of the USSR). That is the reason why he calls it "the short century". He divides that "short century" in three parts: an age of catastrophe (from 1914 to the end of World War II), a golden age (1947 - 1973) and the Landslide (1973 - 1991).

Hobsbawm not only delves into politics, but also into economics, technology, and art, all with a profound knowledge of the subject and a caustic wit that I find irresistible.

Yes, of course that there are a lot of history books regarding the 20th century. As a matter of fact, I've read many of them... But this is still my favorite, because it manages to both interesting and clear, entertaining and useful

On the whole, highly recommended :)

Belen Alcat