"Eric Hobsbawm might complain that I have been unfair: that my real gripe is that I wish that he had written another, different book. He might say that I want a Book Written for the Ages, that reflects what historians in future centuries will find of greatest interest. And he is right, I do. By contrast, he might say, his book is "written by a twentieth-century writer for late-twentieth-century readers," to whom "the history of the confrontation between capitalism' andsocialism'...[s]ocial revolutions, the Cold War, the nature, limits, and fatal flaws of `really existing socialism' and its breakdown" are worth discussing at length. He is writing for readers who take the central theme of twentieth century history to be the tragical-heroic course of World Communism. But the tragical-heroic course of World Communism is simply not the central theme of twentieth century history. For what audience is Hobsbawm writing his book? To what "late twentieth century readers" can we recommend The Age of Extremes as covering the pieces of twentieth century history they want and need to learn?"
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CommunistsAcademics from the United KingdomNon-fiction authors from the United KingdomMarxistsHistorians from the United Kingdom
Original Language: English
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J. Bradford DeLong, "Low Marx: A Review of Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes" (1995)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hobsbawm
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Eric Hobsbawm
1920 â 1991
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm, CH, FRSL, FBA (9 June 1917 â 1 October 2012) was a British Marxist historian and author and a leading theorist of the Communist Party of Great Britain (1920â1991), and former president of Birkbeck College, University of London.
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