I never quite or fully understood what she meant back all those years ago. Hobsbawm is one of the great historians, and this analysis of the short twentieth century – building on his three volume history of the long nineteenth century – is essential reading for an understanding of the big picture of contemporary history – with its argument that the period c1914 to 1945 was one long European war, that one of the great European social changes of the 20th century was the demise of the peasantry, and other counterintuitive arguments that unsettle the simplicity of the receHobsbawm is one of the great historians, and this analysis of the short twentieth century – building on his three volume history of the long nineteenth century – is essential reading for an understanding of the big picture of contemporary history – with its argument that the period c1914 to 1945 was one long European war, that one of the great European social changes of the 20th century was the demise of the peasantry, and other counterintuitive arguments that unsettle the simplicity of the received version.It seems as if Hobsbawm was too confused or dishonest about the goals and accomplishments of communism to give it to us straight in chapter 2. It is not quite easy to fit the whole century into a 600 page book, but Hobsbawm manages to distill all of it, without leaving hardly anything out. His technique is to look upon history as a jewel of many facets, each of which is worth viewing and all of which are necessary to approach understanding of the whole.I remember, a long time ago I read this when it was first published in 1994 - I was a social history student at Swansea Uni - and my lecturer told me this book was a 'departure for Hobsbawm'. Publication date 1994 Topics History, Modern -- 20th century. Highly recommend.Hobsbawm is a provocative guide to the "Short Twentieth Century." Indirectly of course this points to another process of the 20th century, the complete plebeianization of culture, the death of high-brow art, brilliantly addressed by Hobsbawm in his book Fractured times. But some of his passages on art, science and social issues (particularly those pertaining to homosexuality) were troubling and bordering on reactionary.
I think he's one of those historians that only makes sense if you've already spent a lifetime reading history and know the landscape prI read this with a ton of hope: I heard this guy was a british national treasure and one of the most famous living historians. Most importantly, he is never dull. It's amazing to me how little we know about the very time in which we live, but Hobsbawm brings a depth and breadth to the history that is unparalleled. By Eric Hobsbawm. And while each was vastly informative, I think I enjoyed his final work, "The Age of Extremes," about "the short Twentieth Century" (1914-1990), most. . Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Most of the contemporary world politics is a result of … statistics, provoking facts, and even the occasional personal anecdote. He wrote many acclaimed historical works, including a trilogy on the nineteenth-century: The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age of Empire, and was the author of The Age of Extremes: The Short 20th Century 1914-1991 and his recent auEric Hobsbawm, a self-confessed "unrepentant communist", was professor emeritus of economic and social history of the University of London at Birkbeck. That is the reason why he calls it "the short century". The 20th century is marked by 4 extremely important events: World Wars, the Cold War, and the fall of Berlin wall. It's possible that's because he was an old man. He takes an objective stance on the state-planned economies of the Soviet Bloc, and whilst Soviet Russia was one of the countries that had escaped the stock market collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed it due to its state-run five year plans that saw Russia become an industrial power house, it didn't stop the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of Soviet Russia between 1989 and 1991, where this book ends.Usually the only people tackling long general histories are conservatives. The Marxists are too busy arguing over minutiae to lend their worldview to great spans of time. Please try again later.
"When I was 13, I got to fly in a prop plane, and for the first time viewed my home, school, and everything I knew from 2000 ft. For the first time, maps made sense, and I could see the city as more than a collection of houses and streets. No complaints. farming. It is 'conscientization'. I thoroughly enjoyed large parts of his political and military chapters, I may not agree with all of his points but they were interesting nontheless. He's certainly not a free marketeer, his loathing for economists is palpable, but neither is he an apologist for Stalin. Be the first to ask a question about The Age of Extremes He is usually labeled a Marxist historian, but from reading his tetralogy, of which this is the final volume, I see him more as a writer not in thrall to capitalist triumphalism. But it seems he'd had a lifetime to consider communism and hadn't quite strayed from the idea that world-wide revolution was still the answer. Publisher Pantheon Books Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks; china Digitizing sponsor Kahle/Austin Foundation Contributor Internet Archive Language English.
The first edition of the novel was published in 1994, and was written by Eric Hobsbawm.