Primitive Rebels

by Eric J. Hobsbawm

Social agitation is as essential a part of public life today as it has ever been. In Eric Hobsbawm's masterful study, Primitive Rebels , he shines a light on the origins of contemporary Robin Hood, secret societies, revolutionary peasants, Mafiosi, Spanish Civil War anarchy, pre-industrial mobs and riots - all of which have fed in to our notions of dissent in the modern world.

Coining now familiar terms such as 'social banditry', Primitive Rebels shows how Hobsbawm was decades ahead of his time, and his insightful analysis of the history of social movements is critical to our understanding of movements such as UK Uncut, Black Lives Matter and the growing international resistance to Donald Trump's presidency.

Reissued with a new introduction by Owen Jones, Primitive Rebels is the perfect guide to the revolutions that shaped western civilisation, and the bandits, reformers and anarchists who have fought to change the world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, European History, Sociology, Anthropology, Classics

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm was a British 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."

Reviews

[Julian Worker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Hobsbawm was a British historian who wrote many books on Socialism, Nationalism, and Capitalism. He was a contemporary of other Marxist historians such as Christopher Hill, EP Thompson, and Sheila Rowbotham.

Primitive Rebels is his first major work and inspects rebellion from the time of Robin Hood onwards, concentrating on the 19th Century risings in Southern Italy and Andalusia, as well as The Mafia, social bandits similar to Robin Hood, and the social rituals of groups interested in making changes in society.

Careful analysis of these social movements will allow us to better understand the modern protest movements springing up on an almost monthly basis around the world.

[Paul O'Leary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hobsbawm's early book, Primitive Rebels, isn't really about anything primitive, or rebels as such. It's basically about education, or what you do when you don't have any. Or not enough. Or one specifically political, in a proper Marxist sort of way. Yeah, I know. You're shocked out of your shoes that another.book of purported history is really just propaganda from another leftist British historian. Get over it. I had to. Hibsbawm's narrowly focused subject is social rebellion in Southern Europe between the time of Napoleon until the arrival of a suitable translation of Das Capitol to a town near you. Some of the material in this book remains fairly interesting to this day, though Hobsbawm admits his sources used are scant, and now dated. Gramsci's theory of the north versus the south is ever present throughout this text, naturally. Social, meaning pre-political, uprisings are sketched as either conservative in nature, or those more radically inclined are allied to messianic concepts, if not with actual functioning religious sects. Some of Hobsbawm's suggestions seem mostly intuitive, as Bakuninists being unable to get a sufficient foothold in the cities they wished to destroy because working classes needed them to work in, but lweak on factual buttressing. The background theme that Hobsbawm insists on is that the revolting masses utilized what they had ready on hand, usually not requiring much if any thought, which was weak beer until Marxism came along. Until the suffering masses received their political education, they were forced to wallow in their social(primitive) revolts. I couldn't help but think that the "build a barn" approach to social problems which conservatives sometimes espouse contrasts mischievously with the "burn a barn down" approach that Hobsbawm's primitive rebels often utilized to vocalize their discontent. This conforms with Hibsbawm's message that revolt before Marx is in essence a mug's game. Ultimately, this book prompts some thought, but, alas, not enough to make me grateful that I've read it.

[Mark McKenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some chapters were interesting but overall the writing and structure was extremely disjointed and difficult to follow. Here's an example "sentence":

'Some of the finest examples come from Asia in the 20th century, e.g. The Bengali Terrorist movement, which owed little of any of its ritual to the West European tradition, but drew its inspiration from Hindu religion, stressing the cult of the goddess Kali and combining the advocacy of revolution with that of the construction of a temple in a spot 'far from the contamination of modern cities and as yet little trodden by man, in a high and pure air steeped in calm and energy' and of a new order of devotees, some of whose members should be sanyasis and most unmarried men who would return to an ashram when the allotted work of Indian liberation was accomplished.'

... I mean, COME ON!

[Martin Riexinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many interesting details, but also many flaws and finally lacking structure and an argument.

In his book Hobsbawm draws attention to different forms of social rebellion that predate a class consciousness in the Marxist sense. The first chapters of the book is dedicated to cases from Italy, primarily the South (+ Andalusian anarchists). In these chapters he provides a lot of interesting insights into the country’s social history, some of it building on his own research, most of it on Italian research literature. He acknowledges that these groups could flourish due to the feudal character of society characterized by latifundia, hence they are not very well suited for highlighting a general European tendency (Northern Italy included). Moreover some of them were actually powerful elites like the Bourbon dynasty, or after the unification segments of the Northern Italian elite (as in the case of the mafia).
A similar problem appears in the superficial chapter on urban mobs, where it seems to me that he sets ut to refute Engels’ concept of the “lumpenproletariat” but finally has to accept its viability.

The best chapter of the book is the one on labour sects in Britain, which deals with the big importance of nom-conformist religiosity for the formation of the British labour movement, at least outside major urban centers. He ascribes the strong importance of those religious element which lead to a resurgence in non-conformism to the fact that already the bourgeois revolution expressed itself in religious, not secular terms in Britain. The phenomenon is, however, not as specifically British as Hobsbawm asserts, as pietist religiosity played an important role in Northern Europe as well, with the notable exception of Denmark. A well known result of this are he restrictive rule on alcohol sale and consumption in these countries. Moreover, German Social Democrats had hard times with finding supporters among workers in traditionally Catholic cities and regions, where many Catholic workers rather joined church lead worker associations than socialist unions or the Social Democratic Party. Notable exception can be found (Munich, Mainz), but this phenomenon accounts for the weakness of the Social Democrats in the industrial heartlands of the Rhineland and the Ruhr Area around 1900, and it was thoroughly discussed in the Social Democratic Press.
Another interesting chapter deal with rituals among early labour movements which were in parts derived from the artisan tradition or adapted from masonic rituals (which were based on artisan initiation rituals as well). With the growing influence of secular socialist movements they gradually disappeared before the mid-19th century. Hobsbawm ascribes this to Marx’ critique of such activities, which in my opinion can only apply to the few countries where his ideas were influential. Th question why rituals later became so important for Marxist movements, is not discussed.

[Teo_52 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sicuramente una pietra miliare della trattazione della devianza da un punto di vista storico. Un capolavoro del suo genere, prima opera veramente storica dell'autore (e che autore, oltretutto). Tuttavia, si sente moltissimo il fatto di essere stata pubblicata nel 1960: emblematica in questo senso la trattazione sulla mafia, alquanto datata (non poteva materialmente conoscere gli eventi degli anni '70-'90) tanto da rischiare di farla sembrare a un lettore poco esperto dell'argomento quasi sconfitta dal fascismo. Nonostante ciò, resta l'elevatissima trattazione del fenomeno primitivo di rivolta sociale (il banditismo sociale, politico ed economico) che è certamente la base degli studi successivi. Seppur piuttosto difficile, consigliato a chi è interessato alla tematica della devianza (non è certo una lettura estiva).

[Rubén · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro excelente. He extraído tanto para el TFG como para consideraciones personales sobre los diversos temas que trata más de 4000 palabras. En comparación en la biografía de Franco que leí este año saqué tan algo menos de mil (unas 907). Es un libro harto interesante, aunque no tiene 5 estrellas ya que su lectura puede hacerse pesada en algunas partes, que como he leído a otra persona comentar, están escritas de manera algo enrevesada.
Recomiendo esta lectura, o por lo menos los últimos apéndices, que transcriben y describen la experiencia de muchos de los objetos de estudio histórico de Hobsbawm como sujeto.

[Sean Mccarrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I ranked books based solely on the cool things they referenced this book would be a five. I loved the discussions over anarchism and the Lazzeretti's. But the fact is, that Hobsbawm is factually wrong on some things, archaic and convoluted on others, and basically has a premise that doesn't hold up on its own. In fact, half way through the book he gives up trying to prove it and starts rambling. This book was fun to read but not a great example of the academic Marxist perspective.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wide-ranging, sometimes-rambling early effort from one of the heavyweights of historical study. While the book and its thesis seem a bit flat in places, Hobsbawm himself admits this wasn’t intended as a fully fleshed-out work. Decent for what it is.

[lukas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another day, another Hobsbawm banger, excellent analysis of pre-political rebels from many viewpoints, sometimes suffers from its age, but banger overall.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before the old legends die they perform a public service. Eric Hobsbawn looks at the Sicilian mafia, Brazilian cangaceiros (rural bandit kings) and "Robin Hood" outlaws like Jesse James, at least the Henry Fonda version from 1939, and Salvatore Giuliano of post-war Italy as personifying a crude but effective response to the encroachment on their territory by capitalism, the modern bureaucratic state and that ultimate symbol of both, the railroad. In that sense they are primitive, or premodern. These last holdouts from modernity are "social rebels", usually bandits, sometimes unwittingly at other times consciously, defending the folk around them from an oppressive new order signified by tolls, taxes, transportation and rural policemen. Social rebels are not revolutionaries. That category must be reserved for the likes of Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata or the Mau Mau of Kenya, who fought under a political banner and a program, no matter how inchoate. Primitive rebels are doomed by the forces of history but Hobsbawn champions them in offering another path than that of obligation to the state.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit to the blasphemy of finding Hobsbawm both drier and less historiographically engaged than the modern historian's I'm used to reading. This is one of his earlier texts, and though there's a generally keen level of insight and lots of great ideas, I found certain chapters dull and the age of the text shines through in a negative way. I guess I wouldn't not recommend it if someone told me they were interested, but it's not my thing. The way the appendix is done is great though, so credit where it's due.

The only other Hobsbawm I've read was a collection of his writing on Latin America, which was a bit better.

[Sam Whitehill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t quite what I expected but I found it interesting nonetheless. Far from documenting such revolts as Luddite resistance to industrial capital, which Hobsbawm rightfully acknowledges is well documented (even in his own work I assume), this book instead focuses on the arcane and pre-political. I had never thought much of the mafia or secret brotherhoods as proto revolutionary groups, but now I can say I have.

[akumbubumbu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy buen principio con los bandoleros y la Mafia y muy buen final hablando de Latinoamérica y pinceladas de las revoluciones añadidos a la versión original. Pero peca de querer meter con calzador la ideología en estos movimientos de la sociedad civil. No entendí el milenarismo o por qué ocupa 3 capítulos en este libro. Me habría parecido mejor una influencia de la cultura española e italiana en Latinoamérica

[Stevie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the most boring, driest book I've ever read. The fact that I started it about 10 months ago and managed to finish 15 other books in that time confirms how hard I found this one to read. I'd probably have given up a lot sooner had I not got through the first 50 pages at the airport when I started reading it - awful stuff and definitely not my type of book.

[Sencer Az · Rating 3 out of 5]

Çeviriden mi kaynaklı bilemiyorum, kitabı okurken çoğu yerde dağıldım.
Kitap modernizm ve marksizm öncesi toplumsal isyan hareketleri ve ilkel asileri anlatıyor.Çok titiz bir şekilde Avrupa'daki arkaik halk hareketlerini ve düzene başkaldıran yığınları örnekleriyle anlatmış fakat isimler,yerler,olaylar öyle birbirine karışıyor ki kitaptan uzaklaşıp dalıp gidiyorsunuz.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, Hobsbawm humbles the reader with the scope of his investigations. The interesting and geographically varied examples are colourfully written and informative but the value of this text surely lies in its illustration of the development of the intellectual Left.

[Andrés Ramírez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recomendado, sobre todo el capítulo sobre Colombia.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Primitive Rebels” is a series of essays casting light on outmoded varieties of social disturbance. It is the author’s belief that his generation of scholars had been steeped in the grander movements of the socialist persuasion and had overlooked some of these archaic forms. In Primitive Rebels Hobsbawm’s research postulates that the advent of capitalism into old-fashioned peasant cultures destroyed their way of life, thus provoking them into primitive rebellious responses. In the end, there was a lot of social agitation, but these interest groups were not able to leverage their activism into something more lasting.

The setting for Primitive Rebels is western and southern Europe after the French Revolution, during the 150 years dating from 1800. Hobsbawm presents his case along two broad themes, one through rural mostly agrarian experiences in southern Europe and the other using urban mostly industrial episodes in northern Europe. Hobsbawm presents six articles on different types of social agitation.

The rural theme of Primitive Rebels is voiced through three approaches: peasant protests which usually possessed modest goals and little organization; the slightly better organized mafia families that rented land to the working class in an oligarchy of extortion but lost their import as political consciousness increased; and the millenarian movements that forecast a complete overthrow of the status quo but were unclear on how it would all come about. The urban theme also played out through three devices: unorganized city mobs that rebelled against rapacious prices and unemployment; labor sects with religious overtones standing in as working-class revolts; and ritual symbolism much in the fashion of trade unionism that faded quickly as modern social movements came to the fore. All of these forms of agitation possessed socialist implications, but in microcosm. They were primitive but not random.

Primitive Rebels is an accessible and well-documented read. Hobsbawm brings numerous examples to support his theory of the rise of capitalism provoking rebellious responses in traditional peasant cultures. Hobsbawm does an excellent job painting a picture of social movements outside the classic motives, tracing social agitation during the emergence of capitalism.

[Standard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hobsbawn spent a large part of his career attacking and in many cases mystifying what anarchism (especially in Spain) was really about. I cannot recommend this book to anyone interested in the connections between early anarchisms and recent ones including the anti-globalization movement. No one should overlook H's relentlessly Stalinist reading of history, but he was one of the great marxist historians and this is a good book on late 19th social movements (by no means archaic). Serious readers in social movement history will be better served by Christopher Hill, EP Thompson, and most recently Silvia Federici. Her Caliban and the Witch gets to the heart of "primitive" social movements, with emphasis on the radical positions of women throughout those struggles. Fans of Hobsbawn are better served by his more recent work on the 20th Century, where is proves a very fine critic of the cold war, even his beloved state socialism. I have not read his recently released memoir, but his best books were the ones on the 18th, 19th, 20th century, The Age of Extremes, the Age of Revolution, the Age of Empire. Each of those is masterful in sweep and scope, and (rare for a marxist historian of hte british camp) include decent accounts of art and science.

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conceptually interesting but sort of flat accounting of early forms of social rebellion. The book seems to be casting around for reasons to connect the various forms of "primitive" rebellion that it discusses. Hobsbawm went on to write some very highly regarded history books, but this early effort doesn't do much to illuminate the history of uprisings against the social order.

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting studies of 'primitive' social movements, which in Hobsbawm's terms means pre-'rational' and, practically speaking, pre-contemporary socialist movements. What makes this book special in his oeuvre is the relatively large role religion--although always 'primitive'--plays in the book. Good stuff.

[Lori · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a class and its not one I would have chosen to read otherwise. I thought the ideas presented in it were interesting, but not presented in a way that made me want to keep reading the book. Books came up as suggesested readings based on this, and I may try some of those eventually, to see if an are written in a better style, while still in keeping with the subject.

[Wale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite informative but more of a spur to further research on this matter for those who are interested. Though the Euro-centric focus of the book makes it a bit difficult to relate to for those who live outside of a European tradition.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my Capstone I used this bookcase studies for a New Materialist analysis of Social Rebellions and autonomous extra-legal communities. Particularly the Social Bandit and Mafia analyzed through the lens Manuel De Landa's A New Theory of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. P good fam

[Mumallah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not all the claims made are tenable, but he makes them well. Regardless, it'll be a world-view shifter for most who read it.

[Sycamore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great insights, not the strongest analysis. Cites a lot of interesting cases. Good intro to different kinds of social rebellion.

[Manu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book to be taken as an intro to the topics described by Hobsbawm.

[Shane Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm done with anti-Marxists...