Eric Hobsbawm

Eric Hobsbawm was a British historian best known for his studies of industrialisation, nationalism, revolution and social change. Born in Alexandria in 1917 and raised in Vienna, Berlin and London, he studied at the University of Cambridge before pursuing an academic career at Birkbeck College. A committed Marxist, Hobsbawm interpreted history through economic structures, class conflict and the development of capitalism, while also paying close attention to political movements, cultural identities and the experiences of ordinary people.

His most influential work is the four-volume history beginning with The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848 and continuing through The Age of Capital, The Age of Empire and Age of Extremes. Together, these books trace the transformation of the modern world from the French and Industrial Revolutions to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Other notable works include Bandits, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 and The Invention of Tradition. Although sometimes criticised for his continuing allegiance to communism, Hobsbawm remains one of the most widely read and influential historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.