Eric hobsbawm biography summary of 10
E. J. Hobsbawm, who was born the same year as the Russian Revolution, and driven to Britain from Central Europe by Nazism, died on October 1st, aged ninety-five. I met him just once, as a junior professor among senior colleagues who had a long acquaintance with “Eric.” On that single occasion, a dinner in Princeton University’s faculty club, following a Hobsbawm lecture, he came across as refreshingly serious—intellectually curious and politically engaged—yet un-full of himself. He had already long ago become probably the world’s best known living historian, with books translated into some forty languages.
Historians who manage to live on generally do so through their publications, particularly writings that advance well-grounded original interpretations, as well as through their students who become professors and writers themselves. But teaching his entire life at Birkbeck College, in London, rather than at the Ph.D.-factory establishments (like Oxbridge), Hobsbawm, despite his fame, did not develop legions of graduate students. (Colleagues put out the Festschrift in his honor.) Hobsbawm’s books, then, will shoulder the task of carrying the name and work forward. But his chief interpretative framework, deliberately, was someone else’s—namely, Karl Marx’s. No recognizable “Hobsbawm school” of people or ideas exists.
This is a most unusual circumstance: a planetarily renowned historian who trained few direct students and who did not establish, even for a time, major dominant interpretations of his own. Still, there was so much work and it has been so widely read. His last book, “How to Change the World,” came out in 2011; his first, in 1959. What might endure of his half century plus of prodigious, influential writings?
New Yorker readers will have their own views, and I look forward to hearing them. Preliminarily, let me take a stab.
For many, perhaps most, readers, the standout will be the sweeping four-part overview of European history from the French Rev
Eric Hobsbawm
British academic historian and Marxist historiographer (1917–2012)
"Hobsbawm" redirects here. For the British businessman, son of Eric Hobsbawm, see Andy Hobsbawm. For the British academic, daughter of Eric Hobsbawm, see Julia Hobsbawm.
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British Marxist historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848, The Age of Capital: 1848–1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875–1914) and the "short 20th century" (The Age of Extremes), and an edited volume that introduced the influential idea of "invented traditions". A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work.
Hobsbawm was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and spent his childhood mainly in Vienna and Berlin. Following the death of his parents and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, Hobsbawm moved to London with his adoptive family. After serving in the Second World War, he obtained his PhD in history at the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour. He was president of Birkbeck, University of London, from 2002 until his death. In 2003, he received the Balzan Prize for European History since 1900, "for his brilliant analysis of the troubled history of 20th century Europe and for his ability to combine in-depth historical research with great literary talent."
Early life and education
Eric Hobsbawm was born in 1917 in Alexandria, Egypt. His father was Leopold Percy Hobsbaum (né Obstbaum), a Jewish merchant from the East End of London of Polish Jewish descent. His mother was Nelly Hobsbaum (née Grün), who was from a middle-class Austrian Jewish family. Although both of his parents were Jewish, neither was observant. His early childhood was spent in (1917–) BritishMarxist historian. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Hobsbawm went to school in Vienna and Berlin before moving to London in 1933. He gained his BA and PhD from King's College, Cambridge, where he took an active role in the Communist Party and met fellow Marxist Raymond Williams. During World War II Hobsbawm served in the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Education Corps. He was appointed lecturer in history at Birkbeck College, London, in 1947, and apart from visiting positions in the US at Stanford and the New School, effectively remained there for the rest of his career. A prolific author, with an engaging style, and a capacious knowledge of the arts and sciences, Hobsbawm is equally at home writing short pieces for popular magazines and newspapers or in lengthy treatments. He even did a ten-year stint between 1955 and 1965 as the New Statesman's jazz critic, writing under the pseudonym Francis Newton (these pieces were later collected and published under Hobsbawm's own name as The Jazz Scene (1989). He is best known for the tetralogy on the ‘ages of world history’, commencing with the Age of Revolution 1789–1848 (1962) and progressing from there to The Age of Capital 1848–75 (1975), and The Age of Empire 1875–1914 (1987), concluding with the controversial Age of Extremes 1914–91 (1994), which offered an incisive account of what Hobsbawm called the ‘short 20th century’. Together with Terence Ranger he edited The Invention of Tradition (1983), a collection of essays which by demonstrating that many of the so-called traditional elements of contemporary life (such as Scottish tartan) are in fact of recent origin has had an enormous influence on Cultural Studies. Further Reading: G. Elliott Ends in Sight: Marx, Fukuyama, Hobsbawm, Anderson (2008).E. Hobsbawm Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life (2002). Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm, CH, FBA, FRSL (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a BritishMarxist historian. He worked on the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism, and nationalism. His best-known works include his trilogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848, The Age of Capital: 1848–1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875–1914), The Age of Extremes. Quotations related to Eric Hobsbawm at Wikiquote Eric Hobsbawm
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