Product Description

In these essays, about a quarter of them previously unpublished, Eric Hobsbawm reflects upon the theory, practice and development of history and its relevance to the modern world. These wide-ranging papers reflect Professor Hobsbawm's lifelong concern with the relations between past, present and future. They deal, among many other subjects, with the problems of writing history, its abuses and the historian's responsibilities; with the history of society and 'history from below'; with Marx and current historical trends or fashions; with Europe, the Russian Revolution and the descent into a world-wide barbarism that, increasing for most of the twentieth century, threatens to destroy the civilisation we have inherited from the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. These essays reveal a passionate belief in the importance of studying history, as well as displaying the incisive analysis, the breadth of allusion and the distinctive viewpoint for which this great historian is justly famous.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45568 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 414 pages

Review
'Engaging...always instructive.' THE OBSERVER 'Full of the author's characteristic merits ...authoritative and highly relevant.' THE NEW STATESMAN 'Brilliant' - SUNDAY TIMES

NEW STATESMAN
'Full of the author's characteristic merits ...authoritative and highly relevant.' THE

SUNDAY TIMES
'Brilliant'

Customer Reviews

Our most talented living historian
Eric Hobsbawm, now well into his 80s, continues to write excellent history. On History is a series of essays and lectures which attempt to give students of history a philosophical and theoretical basis with which to continue their studies.
He looks at concepts such as progress and history, economics and history, Marxism and history, and History from Below. Anyone studying the subject now owes a great debt to Eric Hobsbawm, and every student should read this book.

An intense thought provoking work.
It is clear from the outset that this book is aimed at those who already have a wider understanding of some of the broad debates within the historical community, though at the same time that is not to say it is written with an air of exclusivity. I say understanding for if you already have opinions on how and why history should be conducted, particularly as a subject for academic study, then it will assist greatly in deciding whether or not you agree with the opinions offered by Hobsbawm. One of the most notable scholars of our age, he again asserts his importance within the historical community and demonstrates his skill at appreciating exactly what it is to study history in theory and in practice, and how it is still, ever important and indeed, relevant to the modern world. Covering a variety of topics through essay format, the roles of such subjects as social history, Marx, and the Annales school as well as economic history and even modern day barbarism all help the student, the established academic and the amateur historian alike to appreciate for themselves the complexities of our subject. This is not a light read, nor is it something that one will instantly understand and many will fail to concur with the books central arguments and views, but such is the nature of history. Hobsbawm provides us with one of the most thought provoking works of recent years and reminds us that debate among the historical community with regard to the way it is conducted in general, not just in terms of particular periods and issues, is far from dead. A high recommendation from this student of history to any other.

very disappointing, and only for the converted
I read this looking for intelligent historiographical reflection on the problem of reconciling a Marxist perspective with (a specifically economic) historical analysis. I usually enjoy reading historians and economists beating each other up, and learn a lot from the results, because I find that the two disciplines suffer from balancing deformations professionelle.

This book is an unfortunate exception. Since Hobsbawm does not accept that there might be anything questionable about the internal coherence of Marx's economics, or even its plausibility, he cannot even see that such an discussion might be worth developing. In fact he does not even demonstrate that he has much understanding of what economists, as opposed to marxist historians, even mean by economics. Marx, for him is a god who has never failed, with the result that his historography is feeble theology.