Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life

by Eric J. Hobsbawm

Eric Hobsbawm es, en palabras de Orlando Figes, «el historiador vivo más conocido del mundo». Nacido en 1917 en Alejandría, pasó su niñez en la Viena posterior a la Gran Guerra, su adolescencia en Berlín, donde fue testigo de la llegada de Hitler al poder, y su juventud en Londres y en Cambridge, en vísperas de la guerra civil española. Ha sido profesor de la Universidad de Londres hasta su jubilación, y posteriormente de la New School Research de Nueva York. La riqueza de la experiencia vivida y su inmensa curiosidad intelectual son los pilares de esta autobiografía apasionante, memoria del siglo más terrible y extraordinario de la historia de la humanidad. Políglota, cosmopolita, historiador riguroso pero dotado de una gran fuerza imaginativa, sentido del humor y talento literario, Hobsbawm nos lleva en este libro desde el corazón mismo de Europa hasta los Estados Unidos (que empezó a apreciar gracias a su pasión por el jazz), a América Latina (donde fue intérprete de Che Guevara), a la India y al Lejano Oriente, siempre al paso de su firme compromiso con la causa del socialismo, para entregarnos una aproximación genial a la historia del siglo XX, a sus guerras y a sus batallas ideológicas, a sus éxitos y a sus fracasos, a los poderosos y a los débiles, a los grandes hombres y a la gente corriente, con una lucidez y un coraje que hacen de estas memorias un documento histórico y humano de proporciones gigantescas.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, Politics, Biography Memoir

448 pages, Paperback

First published September 24, 2002

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

[Φώτης Καραμπεσίνης]

Ο Έρικ Χομπσμπάουμ υπήρξε μια ιδιαίτερη περίπτωση ιστορικού. Δηλωμένος Μαρξιστής και ταυτόχρονα κοσμοπολίτης (δεν αναιρεί το ένα το άλλο, όσο και αν οι μετέπειτα "ζηλωτές" θέλησαν να μας πείσουν περί του αντιθέτου), έζησε σε ταραγμένα χρόνια, σε εποχές επαναστάσεων, πολέμων και αλλαγών.

Η αυτοβιογραφία του Βρετανού βρίθει αναφορών σε όλα εκείνα τα γεγονότα και τα πρόσωπα που σημάδεψαν την πορεία του και τον τρόπο σκέψης του, ξεκινώντας από το 1917 (έτος της γέννησής του). Κρίνοντας εκ των υστέρων, δεν μπορώ να γνωρίζω τι από αυτά μπορεί να ενδιαφέρει το νεότερο κοινό, καθώς πολλές αναφορές του ιστορικού σε ιδεολογίες (κομμουνισμός/ ναζισμός/ τριτοκοσμισμός) και έθνη (Σοβιετική Ένωση και δορυφόροι, Βαϊμάρη και Γερμανικό Ράιχ) αποτελούν παρελθόν – συχνά έχουν σκεπαστεί με το πέπλο της λήθης.

Αλλά ακόμα και οι χώρες της Δύσης (των οποίων πολίτης υπήρξε πάντα ο Χομπσμπάουμ – από τη Βιέννη και το Βερολίνο, στο Λονδίνο και το Μανχάταν) σίγουρα δεν είναι οι ίδιες με εκείνες της εποχής του, όπως συχνά αναφέρει με το καθαρό βλέμμα του φλεγματικού και συνειδητοποιημένου ιστορικού. Δεν διέκρινα κάποια νοσταλγία για τις εποχές εκείνες (ακόμα και τη δικαιολογημένη τής νεότητας) ούτε όμως και προσπάθεια άκριτης αιτιολόγησης των απόψεων, της ιδεολογίας, των θέσεων του συγγραφέα, όταν έκρινε πως αποδείχθηκαν ελλιπείς.

Όχι γιατί ο Χομπσμπάουμ υπήρξε αμετανόητος, δογματικός κ.ο.κ. Τίποτα τέτοιο δεν αποκόμισα από το βιβλίο αυτό, καθότι πάνω από όλα ο ιστορικός είναι επίγονος μιας μεγάλης, φιλελεύθερης παράδοσης πραγματισμού που διακρίνει όλους τους μεγάλους αντιφρονούντες (lato sensu) Αγγλο-αμερικανούς διανοητές, από τον Russell στον Dewey και από τον Rorty στον Τσόμσκι, αποτρέποντάς τους να διολισθήσουν σε όποιας μορφής αντιδημοκρατικού ολοκληρωτισμού. Ως αποτέλεσμα οι αναμνήσεις του δεν είναι πικρόχολες, δεν αποπνέουν την εμπάθεια του "ηττημένου" της ιστορίας, του ανθρώπου που κοιτάζει με πικρία όσα χάθηκαν (όπως οι νοσταλγοί πάσης φύσεως).

Τουναντίον έχει το ηθικό σθένος και την καλλιέργεια να αναγνωρίσει την πρόοδο που επιτελέστηκε σε όλα τα επίπεδα από την εποχή της νεότητάς του (έστω εν μέσω οπισθοδρομήσεων), σε καθημερινό επίπεδο, για την πλειονότητα των ανθρώπων του πλανήτη. Και προφανώς, με δικαιολογημένη υπερηφάνεια, θυμίζει τις ιδέες εκείνες, τους ανθρώπους που τις έφεραν ως τίτλο τιμής, αλλά και τους αγώνες που συνέβαλαν σε σημαντικό βαθμό σε αυτή τη συνολική πρόοδο για την ανθρωπότητα.
Ένας σπάνιος άνθρωπος, επιστήμονας, διανοούμενος, σε μια de profundis εξομολόγηση, για μια εποχή που παρήλθε ανεπιστρεπτί.

https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2020/02/...

[Ximena]

Marxist historian Eric J. Hobsbawm writes a historical masterpiece of the XX century through the rather peculiar gender of the autobiography. He approaches the historical events of the "short twentieth-century" through his own experiences, first as a boy in his hometown Vienna during the Great Depression, as a youth of jewish background and marxist ideology in Berlin during the rise to power of Hitler, as a university student in Cambridge during its most revolutionary years before WWII, and finally as a respected marxist historian and intellectual in the context of the Cold War in London and Paris. His historical and factual precision, including primary sources to legitimize his personal thoughts is more proper of an academic essay. However, he has the ability to combine his personal experiences and opinions with the historical facts, inviting the reader to step into a different time and space, where the author's words translate into perceivable realities. But Interesting Times is not only an 'alternative' history of the Twentieth Century, it is also the history of the author and the evolution of his personality, thought, work, and ideology through time. The constant question that Hobsbawm seems to try to answer, more to himself than to the author, is why did he stayed in the British Communist Party for such a long time, becoming one of the very few intellectuals to remain openly marxist even after the death of Stalin and the crisis of the Soviet Union and communism? The answer to this question takes as to a journey which starts in his childhood and takes us all the way to Cuba and Latin America, and gives as the opportunity to meet Eric J. Hobsbawm the child, the student, the communist, the professor, and the man.

[Andrew]

A memoir by one of the best historians of the 20th Century, which was entertaining enough, if nothing stunning. As a memoirist, Hobsbawm writes with neither the probing introspection of a Henry Adams, nor the ability to splice together personal reality and historical event of an Angela Davis. You do get a complete portrait of the man, however, with the most interesting part of the text dedicated to prewar lower middle-class Jewish life in Berlin and Vienna, but for the rest, well, it was just too damn English for my tastes. Read his four-part history of modernity if you haven't already, but Interesting Times was far from necessary reading.

[David M]

Perry Anderson's wonderful review is as much worth reading as the book itself

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n19/perry-an...

Even while bowing to him as the greater historian, Anderson can barely contain his exasperation at times.

[Mark Hebden]

Wordsworth wrote on the French Revolution “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!”. Recently deceased (2012) historian Eric Hobsbawm’s own youth was perhaps the opposite of this being born in the midst of the First World War as the October Revolution happened in Russia, and to be living in Germany via Red Vienna during the collapse of the Weimar Republic only to see Hitler rise to power, being a Jew, even a secular one, these must have been daunting times. Hobsbawm’s memoir is alive with fear and loathing during this period which also gave birth to his own love of communism and left-wing politics. For those wanting to know more about the private life of the man there is little here to quench that thirst, but for those wanting to know how he came to be the public figure he was then there are stories in abundance. There are snippets of family life, particularly his early life, but once Hobsbawm becomes an adult and moves to England we are dropped heavily in to the world of the communist academic, writer, traveller and lover of jazz rather than the divorced, second time-wed father whom Hobsbawm doubts we would want to read about and by his own account is not very interesting.

When someone lives to the age of Eric Hobsbawm it is sometimes easy to forget the huge, global events that have occurred in their lifetime and from which they can speak with an observers authority. Two world wars, Suez, the rise of oil, the Marshall Plan and capitalisms inexorable rise, the fall of communism, the Cuban missile crisis, the fall and rise of the British and American empires, David Hasslehoff etc, there really are too many things to cram in to one volume. Many contemporary reviewers and academics take umbrage with Hobsbawm for his politics and often refer to him as the “communist historian” which does a great disservice to the man responsible for the most authoritative continuous account of modern history in his “Age of…” series. In person he has never revoked his communism but in his academic work he has never let it cloud his work, I say work rather than judgement as it is not a historians place to judge. And far from the Daily Mail’s insinuation, he is no apologist for Stalin or Stalinism, frequently repudiating Uncle Joe as soon as evidence came to light of what happened under his rule. Communism as an ideology for Hobsbawm remained pure and the folly of socialism in one country was destined to fail. For Hobsbawm he declares that eventually we will have an equal and fair world, one has to believe that or what’s the point in fighting. He thought communism could deliver it and was wrong, but the innocence of his desire should not be undermined by petty academic squabbling and point scoring. This book is a fine tour of Hobsbawm’s life and work and leaves you wanting more of the detail around perhaps getting published and maybe even slightly more of his personal life. It’s accomplished, forthright and from the pen of a man whose like we shan’t see again. He finishes by stating that he has no doubt that the defeat of Hitler was worth the horror of the Second World War, and echoing Niemoller insists that courageous people must still denounce and fight social injustice: "The world will not get better on its own."

[Hussein Harbi]

هوبْزْباوْم، يعي تمامًا أنّه ليس ممثلًا ولا لاعب كرة قدم؛ فهو مؤرخ، وإن كان من أهم مؤرخي القرن العشرين، لكنّه مؤرخ!
لذلك فالرجل لا يتحدّث عن نفسه إلا كشاهدٍ على عصرٍ هو أصعب العصور وأكثرها تحولاتٍ وعنفًا.
قرأته بعد، سلسلته الكبيرة عن تاريخ أوروبا وظلاله على العالم منذ الثورتين الفرنسية والصناعية حتى نهاية الاتحاد السوفييتي، وكتاب أزمنة متصدعة، وهذا الكتاب الذي، لم يختلف عن سابقييه من حيث العمق وحتى التحيزات، لكنّه أفصح عن الرجل الذي كتب كلّ ذلك.
هوبْزْباوْم، مهم جدًا، كما أرى، كشاهدٍ ومؤرخ لآخر مئتي عام.

[Peter]

I'd recommend reading Hobsbawm's history sooner than his autobiography. But maybe the fact that while always offering some nuggets, this book dragged a bit for me was my own ignorance, because when we got to the history of the UK that I actually lived through, I found this gripping. And I was surprised by Hobsbawm's position: I had not expected the almost lifelong communist to come down on the side of moderate Neil Kinnock over radical Tony Benn, for example. Hobsbawm has an impressive international perspective--he cites as an advantage his having been raised in Vienna and then Berlin at the time the Austro-Hungarian empire finally folded, the Weimar Republic collapsed, and Hitler rose to power. He also is impressive in his determination to take what he describes as the historian's view, detached from the passions of the times; he meets head-on the failures of (what was) "actually existing" socialism and the success particularly of the US, and does not allow himself romanticized hopes, though neither had he become embittered to the extent that though pesssimistic, he still believes a better system and a better world can and should be striven for, even if the alternative is no longer the one he spent most of his life committed to.

[Gustavo Pitz]

Autobiografia estupenda

[Ferda Nihat Koksoy]

TUHAF ZAMANLAR
-Meyvesi çamura düşüyor diye ağaç lanetlenemez.

-Haklıyla HAKSIZ, adaletliyle ADALETSİZ, ne etnik rozet takar, ne de milli bayrak taşır.

-Bir ENTELEKTÜEL için, sömürülenlere merhamet göstermek, geniş kapsamlı akli sistematiğin estetik çekiciliğine kapılmak ve esaslı bir cahillik-zevksizlik karşıtlığı geliştirmek kaçınılmazdır.

-Bisiklet, insan olanaklarının tümünü gerçekleştiren ve hiçbir sakınca taşımayan, Gutenberg’den bu yana geliştirilmiş tek alettir (K.Marx).

-Önemli olan kutsal kase değil, onun ARANIŞ SÜRECİdir. Bu arayıştan vazgeçmek, insanın kendisinden vazgeçmesi demektir. ADALET VE ÖZGÜRLÜK ARAYIŞI OLMAKSIZIN İNSANLIK YAŞAYABİLİR Mİ?

-Cambridge, üniversitelilerden oluşan, mecburi anonimlikler taşıyan, mahremiyetin olmadığı ve sosyalliğin sınırlı olduğu bir kasabadır.

-Benim için esas olan, ENTELEKTÜEL DÜRÜSTLÜK ve İYİLER ORDUSUNUN NEFERİ olabilmektir.

-Meslekte erken yüksek mevki, sonrasında düz yaylada uzun ve sıkıcı yürüyüşü zorunlu kılabilir.

-Sürekli ergen kalmaya çalışan güncel Peter Pan muadilleri, bana pek sevimli görünmüyor.

-Bugünün dünyası, Rosa Luxemburg’un “ya sosyalizm ya barbarlık” önermesine barbarlığı seçerek karşılık vermektedir; umarım pişman olmaz.

-İnsan, meçhul bir geleceğe ilerleyen BİYO-SOSYAL BİR SÜPERNOVA gibi.

-50 yaş, sonrasında “daha iyisi olmayan yaş” gibidir.

-KÜRESEL KASABADA, BİRKAÇ YERE AİT OLARAK VE TESADÜFİLİĞİN SÜREKLİ ÇEKİCİLİĞİYLE YAŞAMAYI SEVİYORUM.

[Dale]

An interesting life, to be sure. Three things:

1. His analysis of the 60s was interesting. Basically: the worldwide student revolt in the 60s was not really political in nature: it was a sort of personal and cultural revolt, nothing more, and nothing that posed any threat to the existing order.

2. His position during the disastrous rise of Thatcherism and the implosion of Labour. He favored "tactical voting", and saw the main goal as being the defeat of Thatcher, and had no patience with the sectarians on the left who wanted to maintain their ideological purity. I would undoubtedly have been among the sectarians, had I been British, but I see Hobsbawm's point.

3. His extensive travels in Latin America, and his seemingly effortless ability to meet and befriend the intelligentsia in all countries.

OK, more than three things: his apparent ease at learning languages; his nearly lifelong love of jazz; and his seemingly non-ideological Marxism.

Worth reading if you've read any of his work.

[NoConforto Dos Livros]

https://www.noconfortodoslivros.com/l...

[هشام العبيلي]

سيرة تحمل في جعبتها التاريخ أكثر مما تحمل مذاكرت شخصية لكاتبها، جعل المؤلف التاريخ أساس ومحور مذكراته .
يشبه أسلوبه في سلسته عصر الثورة و رأس المال .. إلى آخره.

[Grig O']

They should've just used the subtitle as a main title. "interesting" is such a bland descriptor for the scope, depth and uniqueness of this memoir.

My favourite quote would have to be: If phyisical mobility is an essential condition of freedom, the bicycle has probably been the greatest single device for achieving what Marx called the full realization of the possibilities of being human invented since Gutenberg, and the only one without obvious drawbacks.

[Eric]

A very interesting book about very interesting times. And coming from an avowed Marxist Communist historian, it had interesting perspectives... one of which was that his work had been banned in the USSR for more than 30 years before the USSR collapsed in 1991. This author is an excellent writer, thinks rationally, although I disagree with many of his conclusions. He was clearly seduced by the utopian idea at a very young age, and never gave it up no matter how often he saw the failure of the lived experience of actual socialism in the world around him.

[Fran Henderson]

Ugh I loved but apart from all his comments about the global south

[vanessa]

E.H. had an interesting life.
I think that the book could have been a bit shorter, but who am I to criticise E.H.?

[Tglas]

right about everything and when wrong wrong for the right reasons ! few can say this

[Hana]

Es ist quasi unmöglich, Hobsbawm nicht zu begegnen, wenn man politisch-historische Bücher liest. Nachdem ich letztes Jahr seine Bestseller-Triologie vom langen 19. Jahrhundert gelesen habe, hat mich jetzt die Person dahinter interessiert. Hobsbawm lässt sich angenehm lesen, es hat sich fast ein bisschen so angefühlt, als würde man bei Opa auf dem Schoß sitzen und sich die Weltgeschichte erzählen lassen (und Opa war halt ein überzeugter Kommunist!). Obwohl viele persönliche Anekdoten und Wegbegleiter von Hobsbawm erwähnt werden, schafft er es, seine Privatsphäre zu wahren und nicht zu viel aus dem Nähkästchen zu plaudern. Hätte mich ein bisschen mehr Gossip interessiert? Natürlich! Aber na gut, ich akzeptiere es. Meine Meinungen zu ihm als Person oder Historiker sind durchaus etwas gespalten, nichtsdestotrotz hat mich seine Autobiographie gut unterhalten.

[John]

Reading this made me think that really, I should be reading a pseudo-autobiography like this for every eminent historian. Because it apparently is not enough to know that the man is a "marxist historian." I knew that already, sort of. Hobsbawm is more than simply Marxist- he has been a communist since the age of 13 and remained a communist while almost everybody else around him dropped out over the course of the 20th century. He makes it sound here, basically, like he supports pretty much any insurrection at all as long as it vaguely corresponds with Marxist principles. Even terroristic groups, kidnapping and bombing and the like...Hobsbawm seems to have been very fellow traveler-y about them. For example, he mentions being visited by friends (in the 60s? 70s?) who mention casually that they need to pick up timers for bombs, and he implies that he was simply curious about where they might acquire them.
I'm not saying it is bad that EH is a commie. Hey, he enlisted in the 30s, as fascism was on the rise and all that...a legitimate choice. But I'm glad I know this about him so I can keep it in my mind while I read his books. It really is kind of amazing that EH was willing to lay it all out here like this- his entire belief structure, his opinion on events in many countries around the world, his unvarnished critiques of his contemporaries... pretty harsh critiques at times, too. You would think that even in his 80s he might have a tendency to be tactful, but apparently not. Admirable, really. I think I'm more likely to read his work now than I would have been otherwise.

[Jack Fleming]

In a 1994 interview with the Canadian politican and journalist Michael Ignatieff broadcast on the BBC Eric Hobsbawm perhaps the most celebrated historian of his century, was asked whether he regretted his lifelong support for Communism, an ideology badly discredited by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Hobsbawm claimed that the deaths of 20 million people under the Stalinist regime would have been worth it, if a genuinely Communist society had been the final outcome. Ignatieff, pausing slightly, gave Hobsbawm the chance to clarify his position somewhat to which the great man added: "In a period in which, as you might imagine, mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still have been worth backing...but the Soviet Union was not the beginning of the World Revolution." This rather startling admission, an effective reuniciation of the faith by one of its greatest adherents, rather took the world by storm. This biography shows the extent and depth to which the commitment to Revolution had been in Hobsbawm's life.

Hobsbawm's life neatly encapsulates most of the major themes of the 20th century: Migration, War, Ideology and Genocide. Born into a classic mitteleuropean Jewish family with an English father, Percy, and an Austrian mother, Nelly, Eric's first years were spent in almost constant movement, from Egypt where he was born, to Vienna, then Berlin and lastly, in the early years of the Nazi dictatorship, safely removed to England, though now orphaned. A prodigously bright kid whose academic credentials were probably aided by the fact that his physical charactersistics (known affectionally as 'Ugly Eric' most of his life) tended to make him more studious, Hobsbawm threw himself into study. Preferring the grindstone of archival research to the perils of social climbing, Hobsbawm thrived in England. He earned a place at Kings College Cambridge in 1936, even as the net tightened around his scattered family left in mainland Europe as the Nazis dismantled the legal rights of their Jewish citizens and the storm clouds of war began to gather.

Following some rather hilariously poorly suited war work digging roads with working lags in East Anglia, Hobsbawm began his academic career in the ruins of one Empire, as an ascendant Labour Party brought in the NHS, while across Europe, the threat of the Nazi war machine had been replaced by the creeping growth of the Soviet sphere of influence, eventually swallowing most of Eastern Europe, from Trieste to Talinn, as Churchill had phrased it. This Cold War was to shape the rest of Hobsbawbm's life. Over the next forty years he rose to prominence off the back of his great tetralogy of History books, taking us from the French Revolution to the present day, beginning with 'The Age of Revolution' through the 'Age of Capital' to the 'Age of Empire' and ultimately, his 'Age of Extremes' in 1994 which analysed the dying century. Even his most hostile conservative critics in Academia, of which there were many, had to concede that these were brillianly researched, comprehensive and supremely analytical works of popular history. They were and are still considered by many the starting point for any proper understanding of the Modern period.

The reason for the hostility, aside from simple jealousy, was that alonsgside his History work, Hobsbawm also had a second life, that of a Communist political activist. As early as 1942 the Secret Service had opened a file on him and his associates, and in the paranoia of the Cold War years his loyalty and honesty were openly called into question, even as his books continued to sell. Hobsbawm is very good on the reasons for his becoming a Communist back in the Berlin of the early 1930's as it seemed then to offer the only possible alternative to Nazism and Fascism. He also reminds us that, however illusory or flawed the Ideology now seems, it did represent, in its way, a longing for an emancipated humanity. He cites multiple factors in his decision to join the Party including: 'pity for the exploited; 'intellectual anti-philistinism' ' a perfect and comprehensive intellectual system, and revealingly 'mass ecstasy'. He also reminds smug liberal and reactionary critics that this broad cause also attracted great men and women such as Einstein, George Orwell, Bertrand Russell, Rosa Luxemburg and Martin Luther King, among many others. Communist and Socialists were also some of the bravest and most principled warriors against the Nazi regime, and were killed in their millions to see that beast brought to ruin.

In his memoir (bland title notwithstanding) Hobsbawm actually does the remarkable job of making the process of wriring history seem rather interesting. He had an incredible brain for facts and figures and wrote brilliantly. He also coined and popularised many terms in the field such as the idea of 'Invented Traditions' 'Primitive Rebels' and the so called 'Dual revolution' of England and France in the 18th century, and the 'long' 19th century (1789-1914) followed by the 'short' 20th century (1914-1991). He also wrote for many years on Jazz and was lecturer at Birkbeck College in London until his retirement in 1982. Towards the end of his life, as the Soviet Union fell apart and the Capitalist system of the West reigned ascendant Hobsbawm was asked many times, sometimes in kindly, other times condescending tones, whether he now recanted his years of support for such a system. To this, Hobsbawm could rightly retort that he had been moving steadily away from the Party since at least the sixties, and that, perhaps one ought to ask Capitalist critics whether they too recanted their belief in the system, upon witnessing the devastation it had wrought on much of the world. The point was well made. Though he may have been wrong, and had the honesty to admit that he had devoted his life to a losing cause, the point was to choose one's side, live without illusions, and work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation. Or, to paraphrase another thinker the goal is not merely to interpret the world, the point is to change it.

[Chris Anderson]

The first third- about Hobsbawm’s Vienna and Berlin childhood- was fantastic, though for that you can also read Stefan Zweig. Hobsbawm himself admits that the book gets less interesting once he finally hits the big time in terms of his own fame, and it largely becomes a series of anecdotes chronicling his travels to various countries and meeting various communist and guerrilla luminaries. Most reviewers are right: he never satisfactorily explains why he stuck w communism, but a friend of mine summed it up. He was just stubborn. Seems like a bad reason to embrace an ideology but hey, there are dumber reasons (I guess).

All that said, the book also serves as a chance for one of our greatest historians to give the “last word” on his (short) 20th century, thorough a personal lens. That alone makes it worth a read if you’re interested.

[Ana]

هذا الكتاب ليس مجرد مذكرات للكاتب
الذي ولد في الاسكندرية بل انه بالفعل مذكرات للقرن العشرين
يتكلم عن اهم الاحداث السياسية في اوروبا ،، تاريخ المانيا وبريطانيا قبل واثناء الحرب العالمية
عن اليهود ،، يتكلم عن تجربة انتمائه للحزب الشيوعي البريطاني
كتاب شيق ،، انصح بقرائته
رغم كثرة التفاصيل والتي قد تشعركم بالضجر

[Fernando Pestana da Costa]

I have read several books by Hobsbawm, and I must say that I found his arguments mostly compelling and right to the point and his books very enjoyable and enlightening. Although one thing does not imply another, it turns out that this autobiography of him is also very interesting: he was an historian indeed living in interesting times and this book, describing his life from his birth in Alexandria (Egypt), to youth in Vienna and Berlin, and his migration to England where he lived the rest of his life (but for the usual and frequent travels abroad, academically or politically related), studying in Cambridge, teaching in London, and having an intense political activity very much everywhere. His attachment to the British Communist Party (although later an unortodox member, away from the party decision making bodies and detached from its official policies) and his defense of aspects of the Soviet reality attracted the expected criticism from conservative and reactionary historians and intellectuals, and even from some on the moderate Left. The autobiography, however, does not deal deeply with these polemics but with his life, of which academic studies and research were an important part, but the active political involvement, mainly in Britain, Europe, and South America, with Left wing struggles and values was an even more important activity and, at times, an apparently all absorbing one. All in all: a very interesting autobiography by one of the most famous British Marxist historians of the 20th century.

[Hornthesecond]

Yes, I did find this an interesting read, but I think it helped a lot that, for a non-historian, I'm very interested in twentieth century history and my politics are left of centre. I found there was rather a lot of detail about various Communist organisations, also that the author seemed to be keen to remind us that he was an "intellectual" and seemed to have very clear ideas about separate intellectual communities.

Hobsbawm seems to have had an extensive network of well-informed and intelligent colleagues, friends, and contacts, who no doubt helped him gain the understanding that allowed him to write so authoritatively. He is generous in his praise of them, and when giving credit to his influences. Any time my attention was flagging slightly as I read this book Hobsbawm came out with a gem of a comment or anecdote and I was rewarded for my perseverance. He seems to have met some very interesting people.

I particularly liked the final chapter in which Hobsbawm cautions against the dangers of "identity history", and considers some issues (the book was published in 2002) arising from 9/11 and the USA's situation as a single dominant superpower in terms of possible future developments.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed reading Hobsbawm's "The Age of Extremes" about the short 20th century or his other non-specialist history books. I think you might enjoy seeing how Hobsbawm's life's trajectory intersected with the history about which he wrote.

[Dan Mortimore]

Hobsbawm's book is impersonal by the standards of an autobiography, tracing the locations and milieu of a life without revealing very much about the people involved, least of all himself. This might be limited in some ways, but it's also a style that sets the book apart.

The author identifies as peripatetic (a person who travels from place to place), and many of the most engaging chapters recount places he's lived or settled temporarily. The writing is dense and filled with meaning, not merely factual but often poetic. Hobsbawm tries to capture the culture, the feeling and also the romance of a city or country at a particular point in time.

I may not be the typical reader, not having read his histories much (chapters at uni) but I'd say it's a good introduction to the international flavour of his work. No you needn't have communist sympathies to enjoy, but I'd say you do need to enjoy reading history. At the conclusion the author expresses a wish that younger readers use the book to be more informed ahead of the 21st century. The book fulfils this ambitious aim, in my view.

[Lorenzo]

Hobsbawm é o grande historiador do século XX e sobre o século XX. Muito disso se deve ao fato de que soube como ninguém ser testemunha ao longo dos 95 anos de sua vida. Em Era dos Extremos: O Breve Século XX - 1914-1991 está o resultado científico/historiográfico dessa empreitada. Em 'Tempos interessantes' está o relato pessoal (inclusive acredito que seja um grande complemento ao primeiro).

Esse relato me parece fundamental para qualquer pessoa interessada em entender algumas trajetórias do século passado (Hobsbawm particularmente pois em seus passos é possível acompanhar o desenrolar de eventos fundamentais, especialmente a ascensão do nazismo e a Segunda Guerra, além da militância no Partido Comunista Inglês e a visão paulatinamente pessimista com relação à URSS e ao 'socialismo real'), mas creio que são os historiadores quem o apreciam com mais gosto. Boa parte do desenvolvimento da história e das ciências sociais enquanto disciplinas está ali, seja nas descrições de contatos pessoais (com Braudel, Le Goff, Koselleck, Raymond Williams, Bourdieu etc.), seja em seu engajamento com o marxismo.

[Del Herman]

Eric Hobsbawm's autobiography can be boring at times (especially when he goes on for tens of pages about the dynamics of the Communist Party when he was a member) but can also be teeming with the erudition, insight, intelligence, and unique perspective on global history that made its subject such an incredible, tour de force historian to begin with.

If one wants to read one of Eric Hobsbawm's books, I recommend his histories of the 19th century (which are so insightful that I have read them twice) or one of his studies of the working class or various peasant rebels (Bandits, Primitive Rebels, etc.). If you find that you are a Hobsbawm super fan after that point, come back and give this autobiography a crack.

[Vincent Pollard]

A very interesting figure (I very much like his politics and taste in music and literature) but not a very interesting autobiography. I loved some chapters (the last 4 especially) but a lot of it was rambling and a slog to get through. He repeats several anecdotes at least twice. It needs a bit of edit to cut out the chaff and a lot of pointless information that leads nowhere. Maybe getting a man so humble to write an autobiography is not a good idea.

[Jeff]

I honestly really loved the "pure" autobiography portion -- the chapters up to something like ch18. After that it felt a bit like a series of tacked-on essays about various regions of the world, which I probably would have liked on their own but felt a bit anticlimactic when placed as the "end" of the autobiography

[César Cruz Álvarez]

La autobiografía de uno de los historiadores sociales más influyentes del siglo XX.en ella se combina la memoria y las apreciaciones tanto de su vida como del contexto histórico del corto siglo veinte. Por lo cual, a veces, nos vemos envueltos en un análisis del propio contexto por la vida del autor. La honestidad intelectual recorre está autobiografía de Hobsbawm.