Eric Hobsbawm (born June 9, 1917) is a British historian and author, once the leading theoretician of the now defunct Communist Party of Great Britain. June 9 is the 160th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (161st in leap years), with 205 days remaining. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... A historian is a person who studies history. ... The word author has several meanings: The author of a book, story, article or the like, is the person who has written it (or is writing it). ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1920 to 1991. ...

One of Hobsbawm's interests is the invention of traditions, national and otherwise. He has spent considerable effort in exposing the artificiality of many "traditions" that nation states use to justify their own existence and importance. The word tradition, comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... A nation-state is a specific form of state (a geographical entity), which exists to provide a sovereign territory for a particular nation (an ethnic entity), and derives its legitimacy from that function. ...

Life

Hobsbawm was born in 1917 as child of Leopold Percy Hobsbawm and Nelly Grün in Alexandria and grew up in Vienna and Berlin. Although they lived in German-speaking countries, his parents continued to speak to him and his two-year younger sister Nancy in English. 1917 was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Nelly Grün was born in Vienna in 1893 or 1894 as the daughter of a jeweler. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya; Serbian: Beč) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine states (Land Wien). ... // Basic Information Berlin â–¶(?), IPA: , is the capital of Germany and its largest city; the city is now home to 3. ...

His father died in 1929, and he started working as male au pair and English tutor. 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... An au pair is a single girl (or, rarely, a boy) who helps a host family with childcare and/or housework while staying as a guest with a host family and generally receiving a small allowance (or pocket money). ... // English Secondary Schools In English Secondary Schools the Form Tutor is similar to an American Home Room Teacher. ...

He became orphan when his mother died at age 14, and he and Nancy were adopted by his maternal aunt Gretl and paternal uncle Sidney, who married and had a son, also named Eric. They moved to London in 1933. Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London and the Regions of England London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,421,328 and a metropolitan population of between 12 and 14 million. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Hobsbawm married twice, first to Muriel Seaman in 1943 (divorced in 1951) and the second time to Marlene Schwarz. He has an illegitimate son, Joshua, and two children with Marlene: Julia Hobsbawm and Andy Hobsbawm. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

He became a Companion of Honour in 1998. The Order of the Companions of Honour is a British and Commonwealth Order (decoration). ... 1998(MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Politics

He joined the Social Schoolboys in 1931 and the Communist party in 1936. He was member of the Communist Party Historians Group from 1946 to 1956. 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), from 1946-1956 the Communist Party Historians Group formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who pioneered history from below. ... 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1956, he spoke out against the Soviet invasion of Hungary and left the British Communist Party to join its Italian equivalent. 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Socialist republics/ Communist state Area  - Total  - % water Largest on the planet 22,402,200 km² ?% Population  - Total  - Density 3rd before collapse 293,047,571 (July... Hungarians investigate a disabled Soviet tank in Budapest The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, also known as the Hungarian Uprising or simply the Hungarian Revolt, was an anti-Soviet revolt in Hungary lasting from 23 October to 4 November 1956. ...

He worked with the magazine Marxism Today during the 1980s and supported Neil Kinnock's modernisation of the British Labour Party. Marxism Today was the theoretical journal of the Communist Party of Great Britain prior to its dissolution in 1991. ... The 1980s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1980 and 1989. ... Lord Kinnock The Right Honourable Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock, PC (born 28 March 1942) is a British politician. ... The Labour Party is a centre-left or social democratic political party in Britain (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ...

Academic life

He was educated at Prinz Heinrich Gymnasium, St Marylebone Grammar School and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in history on the Fabian Society. Full name The Kings College of Our Lady and St Nicholas Motto Veritas Et Utilitas Truth and usefulness Named after Henry VI Previous names - Established 1441 Sister College New College Acting Provost Dr Tess Adkins Location Kings Parade Undergraduates 397 Graduates 239 Homepage Boatclub The Gatehouse, built in... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... The Fabian Society is a British socialist intellectual movement best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning in the late 19th century and then up to World War I. The society laid many of the foundations of the Labour Party in this time-period and is still in existence...

During World War II, he served in the Royal Engineers and the Royal Army Educational Corps. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... The Corps of Royal Engineers (RE), commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. ...

In 1947, he became a lecturer in history at Birkbeck College, University of London. 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Birkbeck Birkbeck (sometimes still called Birkbeck College) is a College of the University of London. ... Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the universitys central administration offices and its library The University of London is a federation of colleges which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ...

He was a visiting professor at Stanford in the 1960s. (The wind of freedom blows. ...

In 1970, he was appointed professor, and in 1978 he was made a Fellow of the British Academy. 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... The British Academy is the United Kingdoms national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. ...

He retired in 1982, but stayed as visiting professor some months a year at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan until 1997. 1982 (MCMLXXXII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... New School University is an institute of higher learning in New York City. ... Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

He speaks German, French, Spanish and Italian, and reads Dutch, Portuguese and Catalan. Catalan (Català) or Valencian (Valencià) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra and co-official in several regions of Spain. ...

Works

Hobsbawm has written extensively on a broad and diverse selection of subjects during the course of his career as one of Britain's most cosmopolitan and internationally renowned historians. As a Marxist historiographer he has focused on in-depth analysis of the 'dual revolution' (the political French revolution and the industrial British revolution) and how their combined effect lies behind the predominant trend towards liberal capitalism today. Another re-occurring theme in his work has been banditry, a phenomenon that Hobsbawm has tried to place within the confines of relevant societal and historical context, and thus countering the traditional view of it being a spontaneous and unpredictable form of primitive rebellion. Outside of academic historical writing, Hobsbawm has written (under the pseudonym Francis Newton--taken from the name of Billie Holiday's Communist trumpet player) for the New Statesman as a jazz critic and has numerous essays published in various intellectual journals, dealing with anything from barbarity in the modern age to the troubles of labour movements and the conflict between anarchism and communism. Marxist or historical materialist historiography is an influential school of historiography. ... During the French Revolution (1789-1799) democracy and republicanism replaced the absolute monarchy in France, and the French sector of the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ... The Industrial Revolution was the major technological, socioeconomic and cultural change in the late 18th and early 19th century resulting from the replacement of an economy based on manual labor to one dominated by industry and machine manufacture. ... Butch Cassidy, a famous outlaw An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, is most familiar to contemporary readers as a stock character in Western movies. ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ... Jazz master Louis Armstrong remains one of the most loved and best known of all jazz musicians. ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of government. ... Communism refers to a theoretical system of social organization and a political movement based on common ownership of the means of production. ...

His most recent publication was the autobiography, Interesting Times.

Controversy

Hobsbawm has attracted criticism for his seemingly unrepentant continued support for Communism. In a now notorious interview with British cultural critic Michael Ignatieff on British television, he responded to the question of whether 20 million deaths would have been justified if the proposed Communist utopia had been created as a consequence by saying "yes". Michael Grant Ignatieff (born May 12, 1947 in Toronto) is a noted Canadian scholar and novelist. ...

Publication list

He has written (among other things) the following books:

• Labour's Turning Point
• Primitive Rebels
• The Age of Revolution
• Labouring Men
• Industry and Empire
• Bandits
• Captain Swing (with George Rude)
• Revolutionaries
• The Age of Capital, 1848-1875
• Workers
• The Age of Empire
• Nations and Nationalism since 1780
• The Jazz Scene
• Age of Extremes
• On History
• Uncommon People
• Interesting Times (autobiography)
• On the Edge of the New Century

He has edited the following: The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914-1991 is a book on modern history by Eric Hobsbawm, published in 1994. ...

• The Invention of Tradition (With Terrence Ranger)

Terence Ranger is a prominent African historian, focusing much of his work on the colonial History of Zimbabwe. ...

Reference

• Campbell, J. "Towards the Great Decision: Review of the The Age of Empire" page 153 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 4428, February 12, 1988.
• Cronin, J. "Creating a Marxist Historiography: the Contribution of Hobsbawm" pages 87-109 from Radical History Review, Volume 19, 1979.
• Genovese, Eugene "The Squandered Century: Review of The Age of Extremes" pages 38-43 from The New Republic, Volume 212, April 17, 1995.
• Hampson, N. "All for the Better? Review of Echoes of the Marseillaise" page 637 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 4550, June 15, 1990.
• Judt, Tony "Downhill All the Way: Review of The Age of Extremes" pages 20-25 from New York Review of Books, May 25, 1995, Volume 49, Issue # 9.
• Landes, David "The Ubiquitous Bourgeoisie: Review of The Age of Capital" pages 662-664 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 3873, June 4, 1976.
• McKibblin, R. "Capitalism out of Control: Review of The Age of Extremes" pages 406 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 4778, October 28, 1994.
• Mingay, G.E. "Review of Captain Swing" page 810 from English Historical Review, Volume 85 (337), 1970.
• Samuel, R. and Stedman Jones, Garth (editors) Culture, Ideology and Politics: Essays for Eric Hobsbawm, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.
• Seton-Watson, H. "Manufactured Mythologies: Review of The Invention of Tradition" page 1270 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 4207, November 18, 1983.
• Smith, P. "No Vulgar Marxist: Review of On History" page 31 from Times Literary Supplement, Volume 4917, June 27, 1997.
• Thane, P.; Crossick, G. & Floud, R. (editors) The Power of the Past: Essays for Eric Hobsbawm, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Thane, P. & Lunbeck, E. "Interview with Eric Hobsbawm" pages 29-46 from Visions of History, edited by H. Abelove; B. Blackmar; P. Dimock & J. Schneer, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983.
• Weber, Eugen "What Rough Beast?" pages 285-298 from Critical Review, Volume 10, Issue # 2, 1996.
• Wrigley, Chris "Eric Hobsbawm: an Appreciation" page 2 from Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, Volume 38, Issue #1, 1984.

Eugene Dominic Genovese (May 19, 1930-) was formerly a Marxist historian of the American South. ... Eugen Weber (April 24, 1925-) is a prominent historian. ...

External links

• Eric Hobsbawm: Observer special
• Article in the Guardian
• Article in Spartacus.SchoolNet.co.uk
• Eric Hobsbawm Marxist historian
• Eric Hobsbawm: lying to the credulous by David Pryce-Jones