Customer Reviews
Good Introduction to Hobsbawm - By: Mr. Ad Meredith, 03 Jan 2008 
There is nothing wrong with a historian cashingin on a remarkable career & a powerful brand with a collection of lectures - provided he is up front & honest about it. In his introduction Hobsbawm makes it clear that he is presenting the (updated) texts from lectures & there may therefore be some overlap & repetition. When dipped into, as you would sitin on an hour's lecture, the book therefore provides an excellent introduction to some of Hobsbawm's views on the contemporary world.
Some of the chapters are better than others but there is no escaping his central message on American hegemony & we are treated to morsels of some of his more controversial thoughts on democracy. It is true that to be truly appreciated both of these need greater explanation, but there are 40 year's of his writing to choose from if you want to learn more.
Generalization, Marxism and Rhetoric - By: R. White, 27 Oct 2007 
How do you approach a Marxist historian - that is, someone who allows his judgment to be delimited by a 100 year-old political theory, terminally discredited by the hundreds of millions of those it killed & enslaved when translated into political action? I'd suggest the same way that you might judge someone who described him or herself as a 'Fascist historian'.
This book - actually a lazily assembled set of lectures, papers & prefaces - shows you why. Hobsbawm reveals himself to be strongin assertion but weakin analysis, offering no alternative to democracy despite wrinkling his nose over it (an early snipe about "the miraculous qualities assigned to governments elected by arithmetical majorities" sets the tone); childishly anti-American (his language, "megalomania" "crazies", etc, descending into Spartism whenever he talks about the USA, but going all soft & neutral when discoursing on leftist terror groups); completely ignoring the huge rolein world conflict played by the heirs of Marxin China & the USSR, & the enormous suffering their cruel & failed policies caused; & plain ignorant on matters such as the provenance of weaponry & its uses by modern terror groups. (He clearly hasn't read Conrad's 'Secret Agent', for example, or acquainted himself properly with the tactics long used by such groups.)
But perhaps the major disappointment is the utter lack of fresh ideas, of insight & understanding, beyond the sort of journeyman, fill-space stuff you can read again & againin newspapers such as 'The Guardian' & 'The Independent', or hear & see on the BBC or Channel 4.
Do buy it, though, if you are a fan of these organs, & want your preconceptions reinforced - you'll feel all nice & warm, & best of all you won't even have to think!
I could really do with some more... - By: Jessica, 16 Oct 2007 
Eric Hobsbawm is a really good writer - clear, calm & with gentle ironic overtones.
The essaysin this book are collected from a variety of sources - most have been given as talks to various gatherings. They've been edited to help make them 'hang together' betterin a book, but this doesn't altogether work.
Some of the essays are great; insightful, erudite & engaging. Some are far too short - cut off just as they start to get interesting. Overall, I wanted more. But some, although providing really interesting analyses, finally fail because, as Hobsbawm admits, he simply cannot understand the (quote) 'crazies' currently occupying the White House. Hobsbawm sees the ebb & flow of history, the changing currents, the rise & fall of empires and, to him, the current US position is simply nuts, showing no historical/geopolitical awareness at all - & so he gives up. He simply shrugs & stops. And that is the most frustrating aspect of this book.
In the end, I was left wanting more. It is a short book anyway. I'm now reading Naomi Klein's new book. It is interesting to come from Hobsbawm's rather Olympian stance to Klein's detailed & committed polemic. They work well together.
