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Richard J. Evans

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Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History First Edition

by Richard J. Evans (Author)

4.7 102 ratings

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Eric Hobsbawm's works have had a nearly incalculable effect across generations of readers and students, influencing more than the practice of history but also the perception of it. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, of second-generation British parents, Hobsbawm was orphaned at age fourteen in 1931. Living with an uncle in Berlin, he experienced the full force of world economic depression, and in the charged reaction to it in Germany was forced to choose between Nazism and Communism, which was no choice at all. Hobsbawm's lifelong allegiance to Communism inspired his pioneering work in social history, particularly the trilogy for which he is most famous--The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age of Empire--covering what he termed "the long nineteenth century" in Europe. Selling in the millions of copies, these held sway among generations of readers, some of whom went on to have prominent careers in politics and business.

In this comprehensive biography of Hobsbawm, acclaimed historian Richard Evans (author of The Third Reich Trilogy, among other works) offers both a living portrait and vital insight into one of the most influential intellectual figures of the twentieth century. Using exclusive and unrestricted access to the unpublished material, Evans places Hobsbawm's writings within their historical and political context. Hobsbawm's Marxism made him a controversial figure but also, uniquely and universally, someone who commanded respect even among those who did not share-or who even outright rejected-his political beliefs. Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History gives us one of the 20th century's most colorful and intellectually compelling figures. It is an intellectual life of the century itself.

ISBN-10

0190459646
ISBN-13

978-0190459642
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

April 26, 2019
Language

English
Dimensions

9.4 x 2.2 x 6.2 inches
Print length

800 pages
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[An] exhaustively researched biography of the renowned Marxist historian . . . Evans's skillful portrait adds rich nuance to the story of how Hobsbawm's politics informed his sprawling social histories of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
-THE NEW YORKER

"A comprehensive and thoroughly researched biography . . . Mr. Evans is a historian of great distinction . . . the research [in ERIC HOBSBAWM] is meticulous."
-THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"Compellingly narrated and meticulously researched . . . [A] nuanced portrait of Hobsbawm's political and intellectual development."
-THE NATION

"A well-considered life of the influential British historian, written by a Cambridge University historian who himself is well-known for many important works . . . Evans clearly admires his subject but does not hesitate to consider the rougher edges-a book that will rightly bring new attention to both writers."
-KIRKUS, Starred Review

"[A] huge life study . . . [an] exceptionally well-researched biography."
-THE GUARDIAN

"This is an astonishing book: in its breadth, depth and detail and also in its almost palpable, and sometimes unpalatable, admiration of its subject."
-THE ARTS DESK

"The biography is a delight. Evans is extremely thorough, and his main character is great company."
-JEWISH CURRENTS

"Evans carefully reconstructs the story -- journeys, interviews, finances and writings -- but leaves it to the reader to assess the contribution of his protagonist. An admirer of Hobsbawm, Evans is neither fawning nor uncritical." -- Ronald Grigor Suny, Labour History

Book Description

A biography of one of the most important historians of the age by another

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; First Edition (April 26, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 800 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190459646
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190459642
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.95 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.4 x 2.2 x 6.2 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #979,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #457 in Historical Germany Biographies
- #1,325 in Historical British Biographies
- #2,615 in German History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.7 102 ratings

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Book Lover

Wonderful Biography

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2020

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This is an exemplary biography of an interesting man and great historian. Most importantly, Evans (like Boswell's Johnson) lets the man speak for himself, through his letters and diaries while letting others, from colleagues who knew him well, the testimony of family, friends and lovers, and the criticism of his most perceptive critics, round out the portrait. I was most moved by Evans' giving a central place to the women he loved, and loved him, most importantly his wife, Marlene, but also Jo, the Soho clubland waif and friend from the 1950's whom he left a legacy. Hobsbawm was an extraordinarily kind man, his weakness, utopianism (and willingness to overlook the barbarities of the utopians) despite a keen eye for stupidities in the here and now. His wife and family are especially to be thanked for making this biography possible, and Evans for writing it.

3 people found this helpful

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Historian

Exhaustive and balanced.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2019

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An exhaustive, well-written, informative and entertaining life. Various controversial points and episodes are dealt with in a balanced way. Easily read in spite of its length, and adding a wealth of detail to the portrait of Hobsbawm and his work.

4 people found this helpful

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Christian Schlect

Eric the Red

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2019

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If you want a detailed look back on a notable public intellectual and historian, one who lived in interesting times, this is a good book for your shelf. Professor Hobsbawm was a life-long Marxist, who managed to go through the rise and fall of Communism in the last century and still hold his faith in an intellectual cause that resulted in the death of millions.

Richard J. Evans has written a solid, conventional, and highly sympathetic biography on Professor Hobsbawm that is unlikely to be superseded by any future author. I do think that his book could have been shortened without losing much if an editor would have culled out some of the necessary detail on. for example, the negotiations surrounding book sales and his subject's active social life. That his books sold unusually well in Brazil and most of them (all of them?) were never out of print are points hammered home.

Professor Hobsbawm was a British subject who, while safe on that friendly isle, could hold forth against America at most every turn, while seeing the good in the governments of the USSR and Cuba. Meanwhile, I think, if the turbulent events in his younger days had taken him to Stalin's country to live--he would have perished and been forgotten.

17 people found this helpful

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Jose La Luz

Magnificent

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2020

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An extraordinary life during the most trying times for humanity.....

2 people found this helpful

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J. P Spencer

Brilliant intellectual biography

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021

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I'm sure this would not appeal to many or even most readers but I love intellectual biographies and this one about one of the greatest social historians of the last century was brilliant. The author, Richard Evans is himself a great historian, specifically of Nazi Germany regarding which he has written an excellent 3 volume history plus a "prequel" if you will and a retrospective of the era among other works. How he came to write this enormous work about a Marxist with whom Evans certainly must have disagreed more than he agreed (Evans knew Hobsbaum but not well nor did Evans study under Hobsbaum) I will never know but I am VERY glad he did.

2 people found this helpful

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William Kostlevy

History's Losers Make the Best Historians

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2019

In the words of my friend Charles E. Jones, a sense of lose underlies the best written history. Eric Hobsbawm illustrates this point well. A life-long Marxist and even unrepentant member of the British Communist Party, Hobsbawm wrote some of the most compelling history beginning in the 1950s culminating in his brilliant AGE OF EXTREMES. His deep commitment and respect for the facts enriched his interpretive framework. His ideas of "social bandits" and "invented tradition" will continue to inspire historical studies for generations to come. Living to see the failure of the promise of the October Revolution, Hobsbawm never stopped working for a more just social order and the vindication of the economically marginalized. Unlike Evans, Hobsbawm knew how to tell a compelling story without excessive and repetitive detail. Still, in fairness, this is an excellent biography that enriches our understanding of Hobsbawm and at least in its hardback version it provides physical exercise as well--for it is a weighty tome.

5 people found this helpful

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Christopher Powell, PhD

The Subtitle Says it All

Reviewed in Canada on January 4, 2021

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I liked this book because it focused on the man, and not his work as an historian. In the late 90s I was doing a master's in labour history and we had to read a chapter or two from his early work, but I have no memory of it. We didn't really discuss the man at all. Hobsbawm led such a rich life, from his childhood in anti-Semitic Vienna, to his youth in Berlin during the rise of the Nazis, as a volunteer in the British Army during the war, to his life as the preeminent historian he became. Throughout, he remained a committed Communist. Prior to leaving Berlin, he marched in the last public Communist demonstration before the might of the Nazi state crushed the party. Unlike the Cambridge Five, Hobsbawm was open about his party membership, but due to his class and his religion was hounded by MI5 for most of his life. His support for Tony Blair's New Labour, however, diminishes his credibility as a revolutionary. My only criticism of the book is its length. It appears to document every vacation he took, every sexual encounter he experienced, and names what appears to be every single member of his extended family. Cutting about 100 pages from the text would improve it immensely.

Amazon Customer

Excellent book and item in a perfect state

Reviewed in Germany on September 2, 2020

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Item arrived with a three-day delay. Everything else was in order and I recommend the seller.

Dipak Kr Chakraborty

👍😍👍Loved it

Reviewed in India on March 5, 2020

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I was very much keen to read this book since I heard about its publication and Professor Evans' short interview on it. My dream ultimately gets fulfilled this year when I bought this book with huge discount. The milk-white cover-jacket of the book within which name of the book and author's name are printed along with a black spectacle, soothes my eyes. The extraordinary eventful life of Hobsbawm himself, with its ups-downs recorded in a marvelous and lucid prose, which is sometime quite picturesque by Professor Evans are the reasons why you have to buy and read this book again and again.

William Craw

Historien marxiste et remarquable

Reviewed in France on March 14, 2019

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Superbe bouquin sur un homme remarquable

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Rob Peach

; clearly in his reading and writing Hobsbawm was humble, hungry and inarguably indefatigable.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 1, 2019

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Spellbound! What a journey. Eric Hobsbawm was the consumate readers’ readers writer. A historian without rival. A man of reading indeed. He was a profuse intellectual whose major fame was somewhat anonymous.

Andy and Julia are his 2 children, both born mid 1960s so both in their prime now.

Julia runs a very successful networking and news specialist - Editorial Intellegence and she (unknowingly of course) has been a red thread through my life as I have been spellbound by her father since I heard an interview in the early 2000s, with another eminent historian Simon Schama. It is interesting that Hobsbawm hardly mentioned his Jewishness until late 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚; he was a practicing communist from early youth until his death, aged 95 in 2012.

8 people found this helpful

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