View source for Eric Hobsbawm

{{short description|British academic historian and Marxist historiographer (1917–2012)}}
{{redirect|Hobsbawm|the British businessman, son of Eric Hobsbawm|Andy Hobsbawm|the British academic, daughter of Eric Hobsbawm|Julia Hobsbawm}}
{{use British English|date=October 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Eric Hobsbawm
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|CH|FRSL|FBA|size=100%}}
| image            = Eminent Historian Professor Eric Hobsbawm at the interactive session with the students of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Millia in New Delhi on December 21, 2004.jpg
| caption          = Hobsbawm in 2004
| birth_name       = Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1917|06|09}}
| birth_place      = [[Alexandria]], [[Sultanate of Egypt]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|2012|10|01|1917|06|09}}
| death_place      = London, England
| occupation       = Historian
| citizenship      = British
| notableworks     = {{ubli|''[[The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848]]''|''[[The Age of Capital: 1848–1875]]''|''[[The Age of Empire: 1875–1914]]''|''[[The Age of Extremes|The Age of Extremes: 1914–1991]]''|''[[Bandits (book)|Bandits]]''|''[[Echoes of the Marseillaise]]''}}
| genre            = [[World history (field)|World history]], [[Western World|Western history]]
| spouse           = {{ubl|{{marriage|Muriel Seaman|1943|1951|end=div}}|{{marriage|Marlene Schwartz|1962}}}}
| children         = 3, including [[Julia Hobsbawm|Julia]] and [[Andy Hobsbawm|Andy]]
| alma_mater       = [[King's College, Cambridge]]
}}

'''Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CH|FRSL|FBA}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɒ|b|z|.|b|ɔː|m}}; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) 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 historiography|Marxist]], his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work.<ref name=":1" /> 

Hobsbawm was born in [[Alexandria]], Egypt, and spent his childhood mainly in [[Vienna]] and [[Berlin]].<!-- Not a refugee from Nazi Germany, see below. --> 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.<ref name="BBKprez"/> 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."

==Early life and education==
Eric Hobsbawm was born in 1917 in [[Alexandria]], [[Sultanate of Egypt|Egypt]]. His father was Leopold Percy Hobsbaum (né Obstbaum), a [[Jews|Jewish]] merchant from the [[East End of London]] of [[Polish Jewish]] descent.<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/> His mother was Nelly Hobsbaum (née Grün), who was from a middle-class [[Austrian Jews|Austrian Jewish]] family. Although both of his parents were Jewish, neither was observant.<ref name=palmer>{{cite journal |last1=Palmer |first1=Bryan D. |date=Spring 2020 |title=Hobsbawm's Century |url=https://catalyst-journal.com/vol4/no1/hobsbawms-century |journal=[[Catalyst (journal)|Catalyst]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |access-date=8 July 2020 |archive-date=7 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707100537/https://catalyst-journal.com/vol4/no1/hobsbawms-century |url-status=live }}</ref> His early childhood was spent in [[Vienna]], Austria, and [[Berlin]], Germany. A clerical error at birth altered his surname from Hobsbaum to Hobsbawm.<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> Although the family lived in [[German-speaking Europe|German-speaking countries]], he grew up speaking [[English language|English]] as his first language.<ref name="Gdn20190117">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/17/eric-hobsbawm-mi5-communism-stalin-historian-private-papers|title=Eric Hobsbawm's dangerous reputation|first=Richard J.|last=Evans|date=17 January 2019|work=The Guardian|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-date=3 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703100733/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/17/eric-hobsbawm-mi5-communism-stalin-historian-private-papers|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1929, when Hobsbawm was 12, his father died, and he started contributing to his family's support by working as an au pair and English tutor. Upon the death of their mother in 1931, he and his sister Nancy were adopted by their maternal aunt, Gretl, and paternal uncle, Sidney, who married and had a son named Peter. Hobsbawm was a student at the Prinz Heinrich-[[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] Berlin (today Friedrich-List-School) when the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in 1933. That year the family moved to London, where Hobsbawm enrolled in [[St&nbsp;Marylebone Grammar School]].<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> He didn't consider himself a refugee, given that he was British by birth because of his father's nationality.<ref name="Gdn20190117" /><ref name="LRB20150409">{{cite news|last=Saunders|first=Frances Stonor|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n07/frances-stonor-saunders/stuck-on-the-flypaper|title=Stuck on the Flypaper|work=London Review of Books|volume=37|number=7|date=9 April 2015|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-date=25 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325112314/https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n07/frances-stonor-saunders/stuck-on-the-flypaper|url-status=live}}</ref>

Hobsbawm attended [[King's College, Cambridge]], from 1936,<ref name="ReferenceA">''[[The Economist]]'', 6 October 2012, p. 108.</ref> where he joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] "in the form of the university's Socialist Club."<ref name="Gdn20190117" /> He took a double-starred first in [[History]] and was elected to the [[Cambridge Apostles]]. He received a doctorate (PhD) in History from the [[University of Cambridge]] for his dissertation on the [[Fabian Society]]. During the [[Second World War]], he served in the [[Royal Engineers]] and the [[Royal Army Educational Corps|Army Educational Corps]]. He was prevented from serving overseas after he attracted the attention of the security services by using the [[wall newspaper]] he edited during his army training to argue for the opening up of a [[Second Front]], which was a demand made by the Communist Party of Great Britain at the time. He applied to return to Cambridge as a research student, and was released from the military in 1946.<ref name=palmer />

==Academia==
[[MI5]] opened a personal file on Hobsbawm in 1942 and their monitoring of his activities was to affect the progress of his career for many years.<ref name="LRB20150409" /> In 1945, he applied to the BBC for a full-time post making educational broadcasts to help servicemen adjust to civilian life after a long period in the forces and was considered "a most suitable candidate". The appointment was swiftly vetoed by MI5 who believed Hobsbawm was unlikely "to lose any opportunity he may get to disseminate propaganda and obtain recruits for the Communist party".<ref name="Gdn20190117" /> In 1947, he became a [[lecturer]] in history at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College, University of London]] which, unusually at the time, lacked any inclination towards anti-communism among staff or students.<ref name="LRB20150409" /> He became [[Reader (academic rank)|reader]] in 1959, [[Professor#Most English-speaking countries|professor]] between 1970 and 1982 and an [[emeritus professor]] of history in 1982. He was a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, from 1949 to 1955.<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> Hobsbawm said there was a weaker version of [[McCarthyism]] that took hold in Britain and affected Marxist academics: "you didn't get promotion for 10 years, but nobody threw you out".<ref name = "Ascherson 1994"/> According to [[Noel Annan]] in his ''Our Age'', Hobsbawm was denied a lectureship at Cambridge by political enemies, and blocked for a time from a professorship at Birkbeck for the same reasons. Hobsbawm spoke of his good fortune at having got a post at Birkbeck in 1948 before the Cold War really started to take off.<ref name = "Ascherson 1994"/> Conservative commentator [[David Pryce-Jones]] has questioned the existence of such career obstacles.<ref name = "DPJ Jan2003"/>

Hobsbawm helped found the academic journal ''[[Past & Present (journal)|Past & Present]]'' in 1952.<ref name = "Ascherson 1994"/> He was a visiting professor at [[Stanford University]] in the 1960s. In 1970s, he was appointed professor and in 1976 he became a Fellow of the [[British Academy]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/eric-hobsbawm-FBA|title=Professor Eric Hobsbawm|website=The British Academy|language=en|access-date=17 January 2019|archive-date=19 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121403/https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/eric-hobsbawm-FBA|url-status=live}}</ref> He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1971 and a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] in 2006.<ref name="AAAS"/>

Hobsbawm formally retired from Birkbeck in 1982, becoming Emeritus Professor of History, and was appointed as president of Birkbeck in 2002.<ref name="BBKprez">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/news_bkp/professor-eric-hobsbawm-1917-2012-magnificent-historian-colleague-and-friend|title=Eric Hobsbawm 1917-2012: Magnificent Historian and Colleague|work=Birkbeck, University of London|date=1 October 2012|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-date=25 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325142318/http://www.bbk.ac.uk/news_bkp/professor-eric-hobsbawm-1917-2012-magnificent-historian-colleague-and-friend|url-status=live}}</ref> He remained as visiting professor at [[The New School for Social Research]] in [[Manhattan]] between 1984 and 1997. He was, until his death, [[professor emeritus]] in the New School for Social Research in the [[Political Science]] Department. A polyglot, he spoke [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Italian language|Italian]] fluently, and read [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], and [[Catalan language|Catalan]].<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/>

==Works==
Hobsbawm wrote extensively on many subjects as one of Britain's most prominent historians. As a [[Marxist historiography|Marxist historiographer]] he has focused on analysis of the "[[dual revolution]]" (the political [[French Revolution]] and the British [[Industrial Revolution]]). He saw their effect as a driving force behind the predominant trend towards [[liberal capitalism]] today. Another recurring theme in his work was [[social bandits|social banditry]], which Hobsbawm placed in a social and historical context, thus countering the traditional view of it being a spontaneous and unpredictable form of primitive rebellion.<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/><ref name="nationalismproject"/><ref name="DeLong AoE review"/><ref name="UCLA 2004"/><ref name="The Age of EJH"/><ref name="Book Reviews: Eric Hobsbawm"/><ref name="Author profile: Eric Hobsbawm"/> He coined the term "[[long nineteenth century]]", which begins with the [[French Revolution]] in 1789 and ends with the start of [[World War I]] in 1914.

He published numerous essays in various intellectual journals, dealing with subjects such as [[Barbarian|barbarity]] in the [[modern age]], the troubles of [[labour movement]]s, and the conflict between [[anarchism]] and communism. Among his final publications were ''Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism'' (2007), ''On Empire'' (2008) and the collection of essays ''How to Change the World: Marx and Marxism 1840–2011'' (2011).

Outside his academic historical writing, Hobsbawm wrote a regular column about jazz for the ''[[New Statesman]]'' (under the pseudonym Francis Newton, taken from the name of [[Billie Holiday]]'s communist trumpet player, [[Frankie Newton]]). He had become interested in jazz during the 1930s when it was frowned upon by the Communist Party.<ref name="Gdn20190117" /> Hobsbawm occasionally wrote about other forms of popular music, such as in his 1963 article "Beatles and before", in which he predicts that [[the Beatles]] "are probably just about to begin their slow descent" and that "[i]n 29 years' time nothing of them will survive".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-03-30 |title=New Statesman - Beatles and before |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/06/beatles-music-blues-1963 |access-date=2024-03-07 |archive-date=30 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330023648/http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/06/beatles-music-blues-1963 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

==Politics==
{{Marxism sidebar}}
Hobsbawm joined the ''{{lang|de|Sozialistischer Schülerbund}}'' (Association of Socialist Pupils), an offshoot of the [[Young Communist League of Germany]], in Berlin in 1931,<ref name = "Ascherson 1994"/> and the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB) in 1936. He was a member of the Communist Party Historians Group from 1946 until its demise and subsequently president of its successor, the Socialist History Society, until his death. The  [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Soviet invasion of Hungary]] in 1956 led thousands of its members to leave the British Communist Party – but Hobsbawm, unique among his colleagues, remained in the party but was mistrusted by its leadership and ceased political work by the end of the 1950s.<ref name="LRB20150409" /> Hobsbawm maintained some ties to former colleagues such as [[E. P. Thompson]] and [[John Saville]], who had left the CPGB at this time and became leading lights of the New Left in Britain, occasionally contributing to New Left publications but also providing intelligence reports on the dissidents to CPGB headquarters. He later described the [[New Left]] as "a half-remembered footnote".<ref name=palmer /> He signed a historians' letter of protest against the Soviet invasion of Hungary and was firmly in favour of the [[Prague Spring]].<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002" />

Hobsbawm was a leading light of the [[Eurocommunism|Eurocommunist]] faction in the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB) that began to gather strength after 1968, when the CPGB criticised the Soviet crushing of the [[Prague Spring]] and the [[French Communist Party]]'s failure to support the [[May 68]] movement in Paris.<ref name = "LLT 56"/> In "The Forward March of Labour Halted?" (originally a Marx Memorial Lecture, "The British Working Class One Hundred Years after Marx", that was delivered to a small audience of fellow Marxists in March 1978 before being published in ''[[Marxism Today]]'' in September 1978), he argued that the working class was inevitably losing its central role in society, and that left-wing parties could no longer appeal only to this class; a controversial viewpoint in a period of trade union militancy.<ref name = "LLT 56"/><ref name="The Forward March of Labour Halted?"/> Hobsbawm supported [[Neil Kinnock]]'s transformation of the British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] from 1983 (the party received 28 per cent of the vote in [[1983 United Kingdom general election|that year's elections]], 2 per cent more than the Social Democratic Party/Liberal Alliance), and, though not close to Kinnock, came to be referred to as "Neil Kinnock's Favourite Marxist".<ref name = "LLT 56"/> His interventions in Kinnock's remaking of the Labour Party helped prepare the ground for the [[Third Way]], [[New Labour]], and [[Tony Blair]],<ref name = "LLT 56"/> whom Hobsbawm later derisively referred to as "Thatcher in trousers".<ref name="Man of the extreme century"/> Until the cessation of publication in 1991, he contributed to the magazine ''Marxism Today''. A third of the 30 reprints of ''Marxism Today''{{'s}} feature articles that appeared in ''The Guardian'' during the 1980s were articles or interviews by or with Hobsbawm, making him their most popular contributor.<ref name="LLT 56"/>

In addition to his association with the CPGB, Hobsbawm developed close ties to the largest Communist Party in the western world, the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI), of which he declared himself a "spiritual member". He developed contacts with Italian left-wing academics and intellectuals in the early 1950s, which led to him encountering the work of [[Antonio Gramsci]], whose writings were a key influence on Hobsbawm's work on the history of [[Subaltern (postcolonialism)|subaltern groups]], emphasising their agency as well as structural factors. Hobsbawm spoke favourably about PCI general secretary [[Enrico Berlinguer]]'s strategy of [[Historic Compromise]] in the 1970s, seeking rapprochement with the [[Catholic Church in Italy|Catholic Church]] and the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democrats]], providing passive support to the latter in government in order to bring the Communists into the political mainstream by accepting Italy's position as a member of [[NATO]], thus being able to build broader alliances and convince wider sections of society of its legitimacy as a potential governing force.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/eric-hobsbawm-italy-pci-gramsci |title=Hobsbawm in Italy |last=Broder |first=David |date=18 November 2018 |website=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]] |access-date=21 November 2018 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122051829/https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/eric-hobsbawm-italy-pci-gramsci |url-status=live }}</ref>

From the 1960s, his politics took a more moderate turn, as Hobsbawm came to recognise that his hopes were unlikely to be realised, and no longer advocated "socialist systems of the Soviet type".<ref name="Socialism has failed. Now capitalism is bankrupt. So what comes next?"/> Until the day of his death, however, he remained firmly entrenched on the Left, maintaining that the long-term outlooks for humanity were 'bleak'.<ref name="Interview with Eric Hobsbawm on his 90th birthday"/><ref name="Eric Hobsbawm: Observer special"/><ref name="Eric Hobsbawm and the working class"/><ref name="The lion of the Left"/><ref name="Diary"/> "I think we ought to get out of that 20th-century habit of thinking of systems as mutually exclusive: you're either socialist or you're capitalist, or whatever", Hobsbawm stated in 2009 in regard to the emergence of a new historical system. "There are plenty of people who still think so. I think very few attempts have been made to build a system on the total assumption of social ownership and social management. At its peak the Soviet system tried it. And in the past 20 or 30 years, the capitalist system has also tried it. In both cases, the results demonstrate that it won't work. So it seems to me the problem isn't whether this market system disappears, but exactly what the nature of the mixture between market economy and public economy is and, above all, in my view, what the social objectives of that economy are. One of the worst things about the politics of the past 30 years is that the rich have forgotten to be afraid of the poor – of most of the people in the world."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://032c.com/2009/eric-hobsbawm/|title=Eric Hobsbawm|access-date=17 December 2013|publisher=032c|archive-date=17 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217234543/http://032c.com/2009/eric-hobsbawm/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Communism and Russia===
{{Overquote|section|date=September 2024}}

Hobsbawm stressed that since communism was not created, the sacrifices were in fact not justified—a point he emphasised in ''Age of Extremes'':
{{blockquote|Still, whatever assumptions are made, the number of direct and indirect victims must be measured in eight rather than seven digits. In these circumstances it does not much matter whether we opt for a "conservative" estimate nearer to ten than to twenty million or a larger figure: none can be anything but shameful and beyond palliation, let alone justification. I add, without comment, that the total population of the USSR in 1937 was said to have been 164 millions, or 16.7 millions less than the demographic forecasts of the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–38).<ref name="Hobs_1994 p_393"/>}}

Elsewhere he insisted:{{quote|I have never tried to diminish the appalling things that happened in Russia, though the sheer extent of the massacres we didn't realise&nbsp;... In the early days we knew a new world was being born amid blood and tears and horror: revolution, civil war, famine—we knew of the [[Russian famine of 1921|Volga famine of the early '20s]], if not [[Soviet famine of 1932–33|the early '30s]]. Thanks to the breakdown of the west, we had the illusion that even this brutal, experimental, system was going to work better than the west. It was that or nothing.<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002" />}} With regard to the 1930s, he wrote that

{{quote|It is impossible to understand the reluctance of men and women on the left to criticise, or even often to admit to themselves, what was happening in the USSR in those years, or the isolation of the USSR's critics on the left, without this sense that in the fight against fascism, communism and liberalism were, in a profound sense, fighting for the same cause. Not to mention the more obvious fact&nbsp;... that, in the conditions of the 1930s, what Stalin did was a Russian problem, however shocking, whereas what Hitler did was a threat everywhere.<ref name="Hobs_2011 p_268"/>}}

He claimed that the demise of the USSR was "traumatic not only for communists but for socialists everywhere".<ref name="Hobs_2011 p_386"/>

===Other views===
Regarding Queen [[Elizabeth II]], Hobsbawm stated that constitutional monarchy in general has "proved a reliable framework for liberal-democratic regimes" and "is likely to remain useful".<ref name="Prospect 181"/> On the [[Debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear attacks on Japan]] in World War II, he adhered to the view that "there was even less sign of a crack in Japan's determination to fight to the end [compared with that of Nazi Germany], which is why nuclear arms were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to ensure a rapid Japanese surrender".<ref name="extremes"/> He believed there was an ancillary political, non-military reason for the bombings: "perhaps the thought that it would prevent America's ally the USSR from establishing a claim to a major part in Japan's defeat was not absent from the minds of the US government either."<ref name="extremes1"/> Hobsbawm is quoted as saying that, next to sex, there is nothing so physically intense as 'participation in a mass demonstration at a time of great public exaltation'.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

== Reception ==
{{undue weight|date=February 2021}}
In 1994, [[Neal Ascherson]] said of Hobsbawm: "No historian now writing in English can match his overwhelming command of fact and source. But the key word is 'command'. Hobsbawm's capacity to store and retrieve detail has now reached a scale normally approached only by large archives with big staffs".<ref name="Ascherson 1994"/> In 2002, Hobsbawm was described by right-leaning magazine ''[[The Spectator]]'' as "arguably our greatest living historian—not only Britain's, but the world's",<ref name="Spectator 19 October 2002"/> while [[Niall Ferguson]] wrote: "That Hobsbawm is one of the great historians of his generation is undeniable&nbsp;... His quartet of books beginning with ''The Age of Revolution'' and ending with ''The Age of Extremes'' constitute the best starting point I know for anyone who wishes to begin studying modern history. Nothing else produced by the British Marxist historians will endure as these books will."<ref name="Ferg review"/> In 2003, ''[[The New York Times]]'' described him as "one of the great British historians of his age, an unapologetic Communist and a polymath whose erudite, elegantly written histories are still widely read in schools here and abroad".<ref name="WSJ 20 August 2011"/> [[James Joll]] wrote in ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' that "Eric Hobsbawm's nineteenth century trilogy is one of the great achievements of historical writing in recent decades".<ref name="extremes2"/> [[Mark Mazower]] wrote of his historical writings being "about trends, social forces, large-scale change over vast distances. Telling that kind of history in a way that is as compelling as a detective story is a real challenge of style and composition: in the tetralogy, Hobsbawm shows how to do it."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mazower|first=Mark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/01/eric-hobsbawm-history-man|title=Eric Hobsbawm: the history man|date=1 October 2012|work=The Guardian|access-date=17 January 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> [[Ian Kershaw]] said that Hobsbawm's take on the twentieth century, his 1994 book, ''[[The Age of Extremes]]'', consisted of "masterly analysis".{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|p=597, note 1}} Meanwhile, [[Tony Judt]], while praising Hobsbawm's vast knowledge and graceful prose, cautioned that Hobsbawm's bias in favour of the [[USSR]], [[communist state]]s and communism in general, and his tendency to disparage any nationalist movement as passing and irrational, weakened his grasp of parts of the 20th century.<ref name="NYRB"/>

With regard to the impact of his Marxist outlook and sympathies on his scholarship, [[Ben Pimlott]] saw it as "a tool not a straitjacket; he's not dialectical or following a party line", although Judt argued that it has "prevented his achieving the analytical distance he does on the 19th century: he isn't as interesting on the Russian revolution because he can't free himself completely from the optimistic vision of earlier years. For the same reason, he's not that good on [[fascism]]".<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> In a 2011 poll by ''[[History Today]]'' magazine, he was named the third most important historian of the previous 60 years.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=16 November 2011|title=Top Historians: The Results {{!}} History Today|url=https://www.historytoday.com/top-historians-results|magazine=History Today|access-date=6 November 2020|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112041501/https://www.historytoday.com/top-historians-results|url-status=live}}</ref>

After reading ''Age of Extremes'', Kremlinologist [[Robert Conquest]] concluded that Hobsbawm suffers from a "massive reality denial" regarding the USSR,<ref name="WSJ 20 August 2011"/> and [[John Gray (philosopher)|John Gray]], though praising his work on the nineteenth century, has described Hobsbawm's writings on the post-1914 period as "banal in the extreme. They are also highly evasive. A vast silence surrounds the realities of communism, a refusal to engage which led the late Tony Judt to conclude that Hobsbawm had 'provincialised himself'. It is a damning judgement".<ref name="NS 20 January 2011"/>

In a 1994 interview on BBC television with Canadian academic [[Michael Ignatieff]], Hobsbawm said that the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens under [[Stalin]] would have been worth it if a genuinely communist society had been the result.<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/><ref name="Michael Ignatieff Interview"/><ref name="Times 23 July 2004" /> Hobsbawm argued that, "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, unfortunately, "the Soviet Union was not the beginning of the World Revolution".<ref name="Michael Ignatieff Interview">{{Cite web |title= Michael Ignatieff interviews Eric Hobsbawm |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnd2Pu9NNPw&t=10m57s |date= 24 October 1994 |work= The Late Show |publisher= [[BBC]] |access-date= 5 June 2013 |archive-date= 22 May 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150522032736/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnd2Pu9NNPw&t=10m57s |url-status= live }}<br />The exchange in question occurs at {{YouTube|id=Nnd2Pu9NNPw&t=10m57s|title=10:57}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ghodsee|first=Kristen|date=2017|title=Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism|url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover|publisher=[[Duke University Press]]|pages=137–138|isbn=978-0822369493|author-link=Kristen R. Ghodsee|access-date=6 November 2017|archive-date=4 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804180848/https://www.dukeupress.edu/red-hangover|url-status=live}}</ref> The following year, when asked the same question on [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', if "the sacrifice of millions of lives" would have been worth the future communist society, he replied: "That's what we felt when we fought the Second World War".<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> He repeated what he had already said to Ignatieff, when he asked the [[rhetorical question]], "Do people now say we shouldn't have had [[World War II]], because more people died in World War II than died in Stalin's terror?".<ref name="Michael Ignatieff Interview"/>

[[Tony Judt]] was of the opinion that Hobsbawm "clings to a pernicious illusion of the late Enlightenment: that if one can promise a benevolent outcome it would be worth the human cost. But one of the great lessons of the 20th century is that it's not true. For such a clear-headed writer, he appears blind to the sheer scale of the price paid. I find it tragic, rather than disgraceful."<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> Neil Ascherson believes that, "Eric is not a man for apologising or feeling guilty. He does feel bad about the appalling waste of lives in Soviet communism. But he refuses to acknowledge that he regrets anything. He's not that kind of person."<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/> Hobsbawm himself, in his autobiography, wrote that he desires "historical understanding&nbsp;... not agreement, approval or sympathy".<ref name="Interesting Times"/>

The 1930s aside, Hobsbawm was criticised for never relinquishing his Communist Party membership. Whereas people like [[Arthur Koestler]] left the Party after seeing the friendly reception of Nazi foreign minister [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] in [[Moscow]] during the years of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] (1939–1941),{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=BQ1HKmG9xZ8C&pg=PA116 116]}} Hobsbawm stood firm even after the Soviet interventions of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] and the [[Prague Spring]].<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/><ref name="WSJ 20 August 2011"/> In his review of Hobsbawm's 2002 memoirs, ''Interesting Times'', Niall Ferguson wrote:

{{quote|The essence of Communism is the abnegation of individual freedom, as Hobsbawm admits in a chilling passage: "The Party&nbsp;... had the first, or more precisely the only real claim on our lives. Its demands had absolute priority. We accepted its discipline and hierarchy. We accepted the absolute obligation to follow 'the lines' it proposed to us, even when we disagreed with it&nbsp;... We did what it ordered us to do&nbsp;... Whatever it had ordered, we would have obeyed&nbsp;... If the Party ordered you to abandon your lover or spouse, you did so."

Consider some of the "lines" our historian dutifully toed. He accepted the order to side with the Nazis against the [[Weimar Republic|Weimar]]-supporting Social Democrats in the great [[1932 Berlin transport strike|Berlin transport strike of 1932]]. He accepted the order to side with the Nazis against Britain and France following the [[Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact]] of 1939. He accepted the [[Tito–Stalin Split|excommunication]] of [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]]. He condoned the show trials of men like [[László Rajk]] in [[Hungary]].

In 1954, just after [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin's]] death, he visited [[Moscow]] as one of the honoured members of the [[Communist Party Historians Group|Historians' Group]] of the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]]. He admits to having been dismayed when, two years later, [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchev]] [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|denounced Stalin's crimes]] at the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party]]. When Khrushchev himself ordered the tanks into [[Budapest]], Hungary, Hobsbawm finally spoke up, publishing a letter of protest. But he did not leave the Party.<ref name = "Ferg review"/>}} Hobsbawm let his membership lapse not long before the party's dissolution in 1991.<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002"/>

In his memoirs, Hobsbawm wrote: "The dream of the [[October Revolution]] is still there somewhere inside me&nbsp;... I have abandoned, nay, rejected it, but it has not been obliterated. To this day, I notice myself treating the memory and tradition of the USSR with an indulgence and tenderness."<ref name="Hobs_2002 p_56"/> Reviewing the book, [[David Caute]] wrote: "One keeps asking of Hobsbawm: didn't you know what [[Isaac Deutscher|Deutscher]] and [[George Orwell|Orwell]] knew? Didn't you know about the induced famine, the horrors of [[collectivisation]], the false confessions, the terror within the Party, the massive forced labour of the gulag? As Orwell himself documented, a great deal of evidence was reliably knowable even before 1939, but Hobsbawm pleads that much of it was not reliably knowable until Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956."<ref name="Spectator 19 October 2002"/>

Reviewing Hobsbawm's 2011 ''How to Change the World'' in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', [[Michael C. Moynihan]] argued:{{quote|When the bloody history of 20th century communism intrudes upon Mr. Hobsbawm's disquisitions, it's quickly dismissed. Of the countries occupied by the Soviet Union after World War&nbsp;II—"the Second World War," he says with characteristic slipperiness, "led communist parties to power" in Eastern and Central Europe—he explains that a "possible critique of the new [postwar] socialist regimes does not concern us here." Why did communist regimes share the characteristics of state terror, oppression and murder? "To answer this question is not part of the present chapter." Regarding the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|execrable pact]] between [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Stalinist Russia]], which shocked many former communist sympathizers into lives of anticommunism, Mr. Hobsbawm dismisses the "zig-zags and turns of [[Communist International|Comintern]] and Soviet policy," specifically the "about-turn of 1939–41," which "need not detain us here." In one sense, Mr. Hobsbawm's admirers are right about his erudition: He possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of Marxist thought, specifically Italian communism and pre-Soviet socialist movements. But that knowledge is wasted when used to write untrustworthy history.<ref name="WSJ 20 August 2011" />}} Reviewing the same book, [[Francis Wheen]] argued in a similar vein: "When writing about how the anti-fascist campaigns of the 1930s brought new recruits to the communist cause, he cannot even bring himself to mention the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|Hitler-Stalin pact]], referring only to 'temporary episodes such as 1939–41'. The [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Soviet invasion of Hungary]] and the [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia|crushing]] of the [[Prague Spring]] are skipped over."<ref name = "Wheen FT">{{cite news |url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/adcd8c44-24e9-11e0-895d-00144feab49a.html |last= Wheen |first= Francis |date= 21 January 2011 |title= Review: ''How to Change the World'' |work= Financial Times |access-date= 24 May 2012 |archive-date= 27 January 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110127143250/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/adcd8c44-24e9-11e0-895d-00144feab49a.html |url-status= live }}</ref> An alternative conservative assessment of Hobsbawm came from Matthew Walther in ''[[National Review]]''. While critical of Hobsbawm for his communist sympathies and his purported views about Israel, Walther wrote that "There is no denying his [Hobsbawm's] intelligence and erudition" and concluded that "if Hobsbawm is read 50 or 100 years from now, it will probably be despite rather than because of his politics."<ref name="Walther 27–28">{{cite magazine |last=Walther |first=Matthew |title=Eric the Red |magazine=National Review |date=25 November 2013 |pages=27–28 |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/363356/eric-red |access-date=10 November 2013 |archive-date=11 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131111031721/https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/363356/eric-red |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2008, the historian Tony Judt summed up Hobsbawm's career thus: "Eric J. Hobsbawm was a brilliant historian in the great English tradition of narrative history. On everything he touched he wrote much better, had usually read much more, and had a broader and subtler understanding than his more fashionable emulators. If he had not been a lifelong Communist he would be remembered simply as one of the great historians of the 20th century".<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/>

==Personal life==
Hobsbawm's friend, historian Donald Sassoon, wrote that: "Hobsbawm was not a Jewish historian; he was an historian who happened to be Jewish".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/struggling-with-his-jewish-identity-1.5172477|title=Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) - In Constant Struggle With His Jewish Identity|date=1 October 2012|work=Haaretz|access-date=5 December 2019|language=en|archive-date=5 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191205162128/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/struggling-with-his-jewish-identity-1.5172477|url-status=live}}</ref> His first marriage was to Muriel Seaman in 1943. They divorced in 1951.<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/> His second marriage was to Marlene Schwarz (in 1962), with whom he had two children, [[Julia Hobsbawm]] and [[Andy Hobsbawm]]. He had an out-of-wedlock son, Joshua Bennathan, who was born in 1958<ref>{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Joan |date=2014-12-09 |title=Joss Bennathan obituary |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/dec/09/joss-bennathan-obituary |access-date=2023-05-27 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and died in November 2014.<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/><ref>{{Cite web| last = Nathan| first = John| title = Interview: Joss Bennathan| work = The Jewish Chronicle| accessdate = 2021-12-27| date = 2010-01-14|url=thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/26016/interview-joss-bennathan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100224040052/http://thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/26016/interview-joss-bennathan |archive-date=2010-02-24 }}</ref>

==Death==
[[File:Grave of Eric Hobsbawm at Highgate.jpg|thumb|300px|Hobsbawm's grave in [[Highgate Cemetery]]]]
Hobsbawm died from complications of pneumonia and leukaemia at the [[Royal Free Hospital]] in London on 1 October 2012, aged 95.<ref name="bbc_death"/> His daughter, Julia, said "He'd been quietly fighting leukaemia for a number of years without fuss or fanfare. Right up until the end he was keeping up what he did best, he was keeping up with current affairs, there was a stack of newspapers by his bed".<ref name=Barr>{{cite news|url = https://www.boston.com/news/world-news/2012/10/06/british-historian-eric-hobsbawm-dies-at-95/|title = British historian Eric Hobsbawm dies at 95|work = [[The Boston Globe]]|date = 6 October 2012|accessdate = 7 April 2022|last = Barr|first = Robert|archive-date = 22 December 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20221222055555/https://www.boston.com/news/world-news/2012/10/06/british-historian-eric-hobsbawm-dies-at-95/|url-status = live}}</ref>

Following Hobsbawm's death reactions included praise for his "sheer academic productivity and prowess" and "tough reasoning" in ''[[The Guardian]]''.<ref name="guardian_editorial"/> Reacting to news of Hobsbawm's death, [[Ed Miliband]] called him "an extraordinary historian, a man passionate about his politics&nbsp;... He brought history out of the [[ivory tower]] and into people's lives".<ref name="bbc_death"/>

He was [[Cremation|cremated]] at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] and his ashes were interred in [[Highgate Cemetery]], very close to [[Karl Marx]]. A memorial service for Hobsbawm was held at the [[New School]] in October 2013.<ref name="Walther 27–28"/>

== Impact ==
Owing to his status as a widely read and prominent Communist historian, and the fact that his ideology had influenced his work, Hobsbawm has been credited with spreading Marxist thought around the globe.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://aeon.co/essays/how-eric-hobsbawm-helped-shape-the-global-marxist-imagination|title=How Eric Hobsbawm helped shape the global Marxist imagination – Emile Chabal {{!}} Aeon Essays|website=Aeon|language=en|access-date=17 January 2019|archive-date=29 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529012042/https://aeon.co/essays/how-eric-hobsbawm-helped-shape-the-global-marxist-imagination|url-status=live}}</ref> His writings reached particular prominence in [[India]] and [[Brazil]] in the 1960s and 1970s at a time of lively debate about these countries' political and social future.<ref name=":1" /> Emile Chabal, in an essay for ''[[Aeon (magazine)|Aeon]]'', wrote: "In the period from the early 1960s to the late '80s, Marxists in non-communist countries were increasingly able to participate in a transnational discussion over the past and future of capitalism, and the most promising agents of revolutionary change. Hobsbawm played a starring role in these discussions – and, occasionally, set the agenda."<ref name=":1" />

== Partial publication list ==
A complete list of Eric Hobsbawm's publications, private papers and other unpublished material can be found in the [https://www.hobsbawm.shca.ed.ac.uk/ Eric Hobsbawm Bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222132636/https://www.hobsbawm.shca.ed.ac.uk/ |date=22 December 2020 }}.
{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="width:100%; margin:auto;"
|- style="background:#efefef;"
! Book !! Date !! Publisher !! ISBN !! Notes !! Cites
|-
| ''Labour's Turning Point: Extracts from Contemporary Sources'' || 1948 || [[Lawrence & Wishart]] || {{ISBN|0-901759-65-1}} || ||
|-
| ''[[Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries]]'' || 1959, 1963, 1971 || [[Manchester University Press]]|| {{ISBN|0-7190-0493-4}} || in the US: ''Social Bandits and Primitive Rebels'', Free Press, 1960 ||<ref name="primitiverebels"/><ref name="encyclopediaofhistorians"/>
|-
| ''The Jazz Scene'' || 1959 || [[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] || {{ISBN|0-297-79568-6}} || as Francis Newton ||<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012"/>
|-
| ''[[The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848]]'' || 1962 || [[Time Warner Books|Abacus]] (UK)<br />[[Vintage Books]] (U.S.) || {{ISBN|0-679-77253-7}} ||  ||
|-
| ''Labouring Men: studies in the history of labour'' || 1964 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson || {{ISBN|0-297-76402-0}} ||  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations'' || 1965 || Lawrence & Wishart || {{ISBN|0-7178-0165-9}} || editor; essays by [[Karl Marx]] ||
|-
| ''Industry and Empire: From 1750 to the Present Day'' || 1968 || [[Penguin Books#Pelican books|Pelican]] || {{ISBN|0-14-013749-1}} ||  ||
|-
| ''[[Bandits (book)|Bandits]]'' || 1969,<br />1981 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson,<br />[[Pantheon Books]] || {{ISBN|0-394-74850-6}} ||  ||
|-
| ''Captain Swing'' || 1969 || Lawrence & Wishart || {{ISBN|0-85315-175-X}} || with [[George Rudé]] ||
|-
| ''Revolutionaries: Contemporary Essays'' || 1973 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson || {{ISBN|0-297-76549-3}} ||  ||
|-
| ''[[The Age of Capital: 1848–1875]]'' || 1975 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson || {{ISBN|0-297-76992-8}} ||  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''Italian Road to Socialism: An Interview by Eric Hobsbawm with Giorgio Napolitano'' || 1977 || Lawrence Hill and Co ||   {{ISBN|0-88208-082-2}} ||  ||
|-
| ''The History of Marxism: Marxism in Marx's day, Vol. 1'' || 1982 || Harvester Press || {{ISBN|0-253-32812-8}} || editor ||
|-
| ''The Invention of Tradition'' || 1983 || [[Cambridge University Press]] || {{ISBN|0-521-43773-3}} || editor, with [[Terence Ranger]] ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''Worlds of Labour: Further Studies in the History of Labour'' || 1984 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson  || {{ISBN|0-297-78509-5}} || in the US as ''Workers: Worlds of Labor'', [[Pantheon Books]], 1984  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''[[The Age of Empire: 1875–1914]]'' || 1987 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson (First Edition) || {{ISBN|0-521-43773-3}} ||  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''Politics for a Rational Left: Political Writing, 1977–1988''|| 1989 || [[Verso Books|Verso]] || {{ISBN|0-86091-958-7}} ||  ||
|-
| ''[[Echoes of the Marseillaise: Two Centuries Look Back on the French Revolution]]'' || 1990 || Verso || {{ISBN|0-86091-937-4}} ||  ||
|-
| ''Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality'' || 1991 ||Cambridge University Press || {{ISBN|0-521-43961-2}} ||  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''[[The Age of Extremes|The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991]]'' || 1994 || [[Penguin Group|Michael Joseph]] (UK)<br />[[Vintage Books]] (U.S.) || {{ISBN|0-679-73005-2}} || along with its three prequels: ''The Making of the Modern World'', [[The Folio Society]], London, 2005 ||
|-
| ''Art and Power: Europe Under the Dictators'' exhibition catalogue<ref name="Art and Power: Europe Under the Dictators (1930–1945)"/>|| 1995 || [[Hayward Gallery]] || {{ISBN|0-500-23719-0}} ||  editor, with Dawn Ades, [[David Elliott (curator)|David Elliott]], Boyd Whyte Iain and [[Tim Benton]]||
|-
| ''On History'' || 1997 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson || {{ISBN|0-349-11050-6}} ||  ||<ref name=encyclopediaofhistorians/>
|-
| ''1968 Magnum Throughout the World'' || 1998 || Hazan || {{ISBN|2-85025-588-2}} || editor, with Marc Weitzmann ||
|-
| ''Behind the Times: Decline and Fall of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Gardes'' || 1998 || [[Thames and Hudson]] || {{ISBN|0-500-55031-X}} ||  ||
|-
| ''Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion and Jazz'' || 1998 || Weidenfeld & Nicolson|| {{ISBN|0-297-81916-X}} ||  ||
|-
| Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ''The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition''|| 1998 || Verso || {{ISBN|1-85984-898-2}} || editor ||
|-
| ''The New Century: In Conversation with Antonio Polito'' || 2000 || [[Little, Brown]] || {{ISBN|0-316-85429-8}} || in the US: ''On the Edge of the New Century'', [[The New Press]], 2001||
|-
| ''Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century life'' || 2002 || [[Allen Lane]] || {{ISBN|0-7139-9581-5}} || autobiography ||
|-
| ''Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism'' || 2007 || Little, Brown || {{ISBN|0-316-02782-0}} || a part of it in the US: ''On Empire: America, War, and Global Supremacy'', Pantheon, 2008 ||
|-
| ''How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism'' || 2011 || Little, Brown || {{ISBN|1-4087-0287-8}} || ||<ref name="Indomitable"/>
|-
| ''Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the 20th Century'' || 2013 || Little, Brown || {{ISBN|14087-0428-5}} || 
|-
| ''Viva la Revolucion: Hobsbawm on Latin America''|| 2016 || Little, Brown || {{ISBN|14087-0707-1}} || Collected political and historical essays on the history of Latin America ||
|-
| ''On Nationalism''|| 2021 || Little, Brown || {{ISBN|14087-1157-5}} || Collected essays on Nationalism ||
<!-- |  ||  ||  ||  ||  || ||
|- -->
|}

== Honours and awards ==
[[File:Companion of Honour.jpg|thumb|right|100px|Insignia of a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
* 1973: Honorary Fellow, King's College, Cambridge
* 1978: Fellow of the British Academy
* 1995: [[Deutscher Memorial Prize]]; [[Lionel Gelber Prize]]
* 1996: [[Wolfson History Prize|Wolfson History Oeuvre Prize]]
* 1998: [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]<ref name="Companions of Honour"/>
* 1999: [[:de:Leipziger|Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung Leipziger Buchpreis zur Europäischen Verständigung]] (Hauptpreis)
* 1999: Honorary degree from [[Universidad de la República]] [[Montevideo]], Uruguay
* 2000: [[:de:Ernst-Bloch-Preis|Ernst Bloch Prize]]
* 2003: [[Balzan Prize]] [[List of Balzan Prize recipients#2003|recipient]]
* 2006: Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]<ref name="Royal Society of Literature All Fellows"/>
* 2008: [[List of honorary citizens of Vienna|Honorary citizenship]] from [[Vienna]]
* 2008: Honorary degree from [[University of Vienna]]
* 2008: Honorary degree from [[Charles University in Prague]]
* 2008: [[:de:Bochumer Historikerpreis|Bochum History Prize]]
<!-- {{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
* ''Labour's Turning Point: Extracts from Contemporary Sources'' (1948)
* ''Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th centuries'' (1959)
* ''[[The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848]]'' (1962). {{ISBN|0-679-77253-7}}
* ''Labouring Men: Studies in the History of Labour'' (1964)
* ''Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations'' (1965; editor; essays by Karl Marx)
* ''Industry and Empire'' (1968)
* ''Bandits'' (1969)
* ''Captain Swing'' (1968; with George Rudé)
* ''Revolutionaries: Contemporary Essays'' (1973)
* ''[[The Age of Capital: 1848-1875]]'' (1975)
* ''The Invention of Tradition'' (1983; editor, with Terence Ranger). {{ISBN|0-521-43773-3}}
* ''Workers: Worlds of Labor'' (1985)
{{col-2}}
* ''[[The Age of Empire: 1875-1914]]'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987). {{ISBN|0-521-43773-3}}
* ''The Jazz Scene'' (1989)
* ''Echoes of the Marseillaise: Two Centuries Look Back on the French Revolution'' (1990)
* ''Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality'' (Cambridge University Press, 1990). {{ISBN|0-521-43961-2}}
* ''[[The Age of Extremes|The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991]]'' (1994). {{ISBN|0-679-73005-2}}
* ''On History'' (1997)
* ''Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion and Jazz'' (1998)
* ''On the Edge of the New Century'' (2000)
* ''Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life'' (2002; autobiography)
* ''Globalisation, Democracy and Terrorism'' (2007)
* ''On Empire: America, War, and Global Supremacy'' (2008)
* ''Twilight of the Nation State: globalisation, chaos and war''; by [[Prem Shankar Jha]], E. J. Hobsbawm
* ''[[J. D. Bernal]]: a life in science and politics''; by Brenda Swann, Francis Aprahamian, E. J. Hobsbawm
{{col-end}} -->

==See also==
{{Portal|Communism|Socialism|}}
* [[Independent Jewish Voices]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name = "Ascherson 1994">{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/profile-the-age-of-hobsbawm-the-peoples-historian-is-turning-his-long-gaze-to-a-short-century-says-neal-ascherson-1440380.html |last= Ascherson |first= Neil |date= 2 October 1994 |title= Profile: The age of Hobsbawm |newspaper= The Independent on Sunday |access-date= 24 May 2012 |archive-date= 14 January 2013 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130114004506/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/profile-the-age-of-hobsbawm-the-peoples-historian-is-turning-his-long-gaze-to-a-short-century-says-neal-ascherson-1440380.html |url-status= live }}</ref>

<ref name = "DPJ Jan2003">{{cite magazine |url= http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/hobsbawm-prycejones-1824 |last= Pryce-Jones |first= David |year= 2003 |title= Eric Hobsbawm: lying to the credulous |magazine= [[The New Criterion]] |volume= 21 |issue= 5 |access-date= 24 May 2012 |archive-date= 22 January 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120122065036/http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/hobsbawm-prycejones-1824 |url-status= live }}</ref>

<ref name = "Ferg review">{{citation |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728809/What-a-swell-party-it-was.-.-.-for-him.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728809/What-a-swell-party-it-was.-.-.-for-him.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |last= Ferguson |first= Niall |date= 22 September 2002 |title= What a swell party it was&nbsp;... for him |newspaper= The Daily Telegraph |access-date= 24 May 2012 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

<ref name = "LLT 56">{{cite journal |url= http://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5384/6253 |last= Pimlott |first= Herbert |year= 2005 |title= From "Old Left" to "New Labour"? Eric Hobsbawm and the rhetoric of "realistic Marxism" |journal= [[Labour/Le Travail]] |volume= 56 |pages= 175–197 |access-date= 24 May 2012 |archive-date= 22 December 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151222112246/http://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/view/5384/6253 |url-status= live }}</ref>

<!-- Not in use
<ref name = "Wheen FT">{{cite news |url= http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/adcd8c44-24e9-11e0-895d-00144feab49a.html |last= Wheen |first= Francis |date= 21 January 2011 |title= Review: ''How to Change the World'' |work= Financial Times |access-date= 24 May 2012 }}</ref>
Not in use-->

<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web |url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterH.pdf |title=Book of Members, 1780–2011: Chapter H |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |page=277 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=15 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115175123/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterH.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Art and Power: Europe Under the Dictators (1930–1945)">{{cite web | url=http://www.dhm.de/ENGLISH/ausstellungen/artpow/ | title=Art and Power: Europe Under the Dictators (1930–1945) | publisher=[[Deutsches Historisches Museum]] | year=1996 | access-date=26 January 2012 | archive-date=31 December 2007 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231062022/http://www.dhm.de/ENGLISH/ausstellungen/artpow/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Author profile: Eric Hobsbawm">{{cite web |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=13171 |title=Author profile: Eric Hobsbawm |publisher=Random House |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=2 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202110229/http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=13171 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<!--
<ref name="Beatles and before">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/06/beatles-music-blues-1963 |title=Beatles and before |author=Eric Hobsbawm |date=8 November 1963 |magazine=New Statesman |access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref>
-->

<ref name="Book Reviews: Eric Hobsbawm">{{cite web |url=http://dannyreviews.com/a/Eric_Hobsbawm.html |title=Book Reviews: Eric Hobsbawm |author=Danny Yee |publisher=DannyReviews.com |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=23 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623083645/http://dannyreviews.com/a/Eric_Hobsbawm.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Companions of Honour">{{cite web|url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/Honours/CompanionsofHonour.aspx |title=Companions of Honour |publisher=The Official Website of the British Monarchy |access-date=11 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111223114812/http://www.royal.gov.uk/MonarchUK/Honours/CompanionsofHonour.aspx |archive-date=23 December 2011 }}</ref>

<ref name="DeLong AoE review">{{cite web |url=http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/03/hobsbawms_age_o.html |title=Low Marx: A Review of Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes |author=Brad DeLong |date=9 March 2007 |orig-year=1995 |publisher=DeLong's personal blog |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=25 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125040626/http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/03/hobsbawms_age_o.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Diary">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n02/eric-hobsbawm/diary |title=Diary |author=Eric Hobsbawm |date=24 January 2008 |magazine=London Review of Books |volume=30 |issue=2 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=4 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204014602/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n02/eric-hobsbawm/diary |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="encyclopediaofhistorians">Kelly Boyd, [https://books.google.com/books?id=JBqWbDmFsfEC ''Encyclopedia of Historians & Historical Writing''], Volume 14, Issue 1, p. 547.</ref>

<ref name="Eric Hobsbawm and the working class">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.marxists.de/workmvmt/birchcarl/hobsbawm.htm |title=Eric Hobsbawm and the working class |last1=Carlin |first1=Norah |last2=Birchall |first2=Ian |author-link2=Ian Birchall |magazine=International Socialism Journal |volume=2 |issue=21 |date=Autumn 1983 |pages=88–116 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=28 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000416/http://www.marxists.de/workmvmt/birchcarl/hobsbawm.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Eric Hobsbawm: Observer special">{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/page/0,11915,796418,00.html |title=Eric Hobsbawm: Observer special |date=22 September 2002 |newspaper=The Observer |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=14 July 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120714021742/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/page/0,11915,796418,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="extremes">''The Age of Extremes'', p.&nbsp;42.</ref>

<ref name="extremes1">''The Age of Extremes'', p.&nbsp;27.</ref>

<ref name="extremes2">Quoted on the dust jacket of ''The Age of Extremes''.</ref>

<ref name="Guardian 14 September 2002">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/14/biography.history |title=A question of faith |author=[[Maya Jaggi]] |date=14 September 2002 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=4 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504134139/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/14/biography.history |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Hobs_1994 p_393">{{cite book |title=The Age of Extremes |page=393}}</ref>

<ref name="Hobs_2002 p_56">{{cite book |title=Interesting Times |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VBQqAAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+dream+of+the+october+revolution+is+still+there+somewhere+inside+me%22+%22i+have+abandoned+nay+rejected+it+but+it+has+not+been+obliterated%22+%22to+this+day+I+notice+myself+treating+the+memory+and+tradition+of+the+USSR+with+an+indulgence+and+tenderness%22 56]}}</ref>

<ref name="Hobs_2011 p_268">{{cite book |title=How to Change the World |page=268}}</ref>

<ref name="Hobs_2011 p_386">{{cite book |title=How to Change the World |page=386}}</ref>

<ref name="Indomitable">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n05/terry-eagleton/indomitable |title=Indomitable |author=Terry Eagleton |date=3 March 2011 |magazine=[[London Review of Books]] |volume=33 |issue=5 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=3 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203094459/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n05/terry-eagleton/indomitable |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Interesting Times">{{cite book |title=Interesting Times |page=xii}}</ref>

<ref name="Interview with Eric Hobsbawm on his 90th birthday">{{cite web |url=http://cms1.its.bbk.ac.uk/about_us/bbk/bbk22/history |title=Interview with Eric Hobsbawm on his 90th birthday |author=John Crace |author-link=John Crace (writer) |date=Summer 2007 |work=BBK Magazine |publisher=Birkbeck |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626205252/http://cms1.its.bbk.ac.uk/about_us/bbk/bbk22/history |archive-date=26 June 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="Man of the extreme century">{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/22/history.politicalbooks |last= Hunt |first= Tristram |author-link= Tristram Hunt |date= 22 September 2002 |title= Man of the extreme century |newspaper= The Observer |access-date=24 May 2012 }}</ref>

<ref name="nationalismproject">{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/hobsbawm.htm |title=Eric Hobsbawm (1990): ''Nations and Nationalism since 1780'' (excerpt) |publisher=The Nationalism Project |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=1 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080301215401/http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/hobsbawm.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="New York Times 1 October 2012">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/arts/eric-hobsbawm-british-historian-dies-at-95.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |title=Eric J. Hobsbawm, Marxist Historian, Dies at 95 |author=William Grimes |date=1 October 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=4 October 2012 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418162024/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/arts/eric-hobsbawm-british-historian-dies-at-95.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="NS 20 January 2011">{{cite web |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/01/marx-hobsbawm-russia-world |title=The piety and provincialism of Eric Hobsbawm: Following a false prophet |author=John Gray |date=20 January 2011 |work=New Statesman |access-date=10 January 2012 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205233232/http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2011/01/marx-hobsbawm-russia-world |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="NYRB">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/nov/20/the-last-romantic/ |title=The Last Romantic |author=Tony Judt |date=20 November 2003 |magazine=The New York Review of Books |volume=50 |issue=18 |access-date=9 January 2012 |archive-date=24 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824012745/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2003/nov/20/the-last-romantic/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<!-- unused ref -->
<!-- <ref name="Officers of the College">{{cite web |url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/governance/officers |title=Officers of the College |publisher=Birkbeck |access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref> -->

<ref name="primitiverebels">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCK8AAAAIAAJ|title=Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries|first=Eric J.|last=Hobsbawm|date=29 August 1971|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9780719004933}}</ref>

<ref name="Prospect 181">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/03/prospect-monarchy-special/ |title=Long live the Queen? |date=23 March 2011 |magazine=Prospect |issue=181 |access-date=6 March 2012 |archive-date=3 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703192627/http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/03/prospect-monarchy-special/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="Royal Society of Literature All Fellows">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |title=Royal Society of Literature All Fellows |publisher=Royal Society of Literature |access-date=9 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305070326/http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows |archive-date=5 March 2010 }}</ref>

<ref name="Socialism has failed. Now capitalism is bankrupt. So what comes next?">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/apr/10/financial-crisis-capitalism-socialism-alternatives |title=Socialism has failed. Now capitalism is bankrupt. So what comes next? |author=Eric Hobsbawm |date=10 April 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Spectator 19 October 2002">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/books/20259/great-helmsman-or-mad-wrecker.thtml |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130114020556/http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/books/20259/great-helmsman-or-mad-wrecker.thtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 January 2013 |title=Great helmsman or mad wrecker |author=David Caute |date=19 October 2002 |magazine=The Spectator |access-date=9 January 2012 }}</ref>

<ref name="The Age of EJH">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n19/ande01_.html |title=The Age of EJH |author=Perry Anderson |author-link=Perry Anderson |date=3 October 2002 |magazine=London Review of Books |volume=24 |issue=19 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930154740/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n19/ande01_.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="The Forward March of Labour Halted?">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/78_09_hobsbawm.pdf |title=The Forward March of Labour Halted? |last=Hobsbawm |first=Eric |magazine=Marxism Today |issue=September 1978 |access-date=11 January 2012 |archive-date=8 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208142031/http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/mt/pdf/78_09_hobsbawm.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="The lion of the Left">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/jan/21/comment.news |title=The lion of the Left |author=Tim Adams |date=21 January 2001 |newspaper=The Observer |access-date=11 January 2012}}</ref>

<ref name="Times 23 July 2004">{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/thunderer/article460555.ece |title=It takes an intellectual to find excuses for Stalinism |author=Oliver Kamm |date=23 July 2004 |newspaper=The Times |access-date=8 January 2012 |archive-date=5 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805082518/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/thunderer/article460555.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="UCLA 2004">{{cite web |url=http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=7315 |title=Eric Hobsbawm Speaks on His New Memoir |date=29 January 2004 |publisher=[[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] International Institute |access-date=9 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040302051923/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=7315 |archive-date=2 March 2004 }}</ref>

<!-- Not in use
<ref name="WeekStan 19 May 2003">{{cite magazine |title=Stalin's cheerleader |author=David Evanier |date=19 May 2003 |url=https://www.weeklystandard.com/david-evanier/stalins-cheerleader |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728071001/https://www.weeklystandard.com/david-evanier/stalins-cheerleader |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 July 2018 |magazine=The Weekly Standard |access-date=8 January 2012}}</ref>
Not in use-->

<ref name="WSJ 20 August 2011">{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512722707621288 |title=How a True Believer Keeps the Faith |author=Michael Moynihan |date=20 August 2011 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=9 January 2012 |archive-date=15 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415141010/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512722707621288 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="bbc_death">{{Cite news|title=Historian Eric Hobsbawm dies, aged 95|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19786929|access-date=3 October 2012|newspaper=BBC News|date=1 October 2012|archive-date=2 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002081608/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19786929|url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="guardian_editorial">{{Cite news|title=Eric Hobsbawm 1917–2012: not the end of history|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/01/eric-hobsbawm-end-of-history-editorial|access-date=3 October 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=1 October 2012}}</ref>
}}

==References==
{{refbegin|40em}}
* {{cite magazine |title= Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) |url= http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12143 |archive-url= https://archive.today/20121224121012/http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12143 |url-status= dead |archive-date= 24 December 2012 |last= Blackledge, Paul |year= 2012 |magazine= Socialist Review |issue= 374 |location= London }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Bounds |first=Philip |title=From Folk to Jazz: Eric Hobsbawm, British Communism and Cultural Studies |magazine=Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory |volume=40 |issue=4 |date=2012 |pages=575–593}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Campbell |first=J. |title=Towards the Great Decision: review of ''The Age of Empire'' |magazine=Times Literary Supplement |volume=4428 |date=12 February 1988 |page=153}}
* {{cite magazine |last1=Carlin |first1=Norah |last2=Birchall |first2=Ian |author-link2=Ian Birchall |title=Eric Hobsbawm and the working class |url=http://www.marxists.de/workmvmt/birchcarl/hobsbawm.htm |magazine=[[International Socialism (magazine)|International Socialism]] |volume=2 |issue=21 |date=Autumn 1983 |access-date=29 October 2006 |archive-date=28 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000416/http://www.marxists.de/workmvmt/birchcarl/hobsbawm.htm |url-status=live }}
* {{cite journal |last=Cronin |first=J. |title=Creating a Marxist Historiography: the contribution of Hobsbawm |journal=Radical History Review |volume=1978-79 |date=1979 |issue=19 |pages=87–109|doi=10.1215/01636545-1978-79-19-87 }}
* Elliott, Gregory, ''Hobsbawm: History and Politics'', London: Pluto Press, 2010.
*{{Cite book |last= Evans |first= Richard J. |author-link= Richard J. Evans |year= 2019 |title= Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History |location= London |publisher= [[Little, Brown]] |isbn= 978-1-408-70741-8 }}
* [[Eugene D. Genovese|Genovese, Eugene]] "The Squandered Century: review of ''The Age of Extremes''" from The ''New Republic'', Volume 212, 17 April 1995, pp.&nbsp;38–43
* Hampson, Norman. "All for the Better? review of ''Echoes of the Marseillaise''" from ''Times Literary Supplement'', Volume 4550, 15 June 1990, p.&nbsp;637.
* Judt, Tony. "Downhill All the Way: review of ''The Age of Extremes''" from ''New York Review of Books'', 25 May 1995, Volume 49, Issue # 9, pp.&nbsp;20–25.
* {{cite book |last=Kershaw |first=Ian |year=2001 |orig-year=1998 |title=Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris |location=London |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-013363-9 }}
* [[David Landes|Landes, David]] "The Ubiquitous Bourgeoisie: review of ''The Age of Capital''" from ''Times Literary Supplement'', Volume 3873, 4 June 1976, pp.&nbsp;662–664.
* McKibblin, R. "Capitalism out of Control": review of ''The Age of Extremes'' from ''Times Literary Supplement'', Volume 4778, 28 October 1994, p.&nbsp;406.
* [[G. E. Mingay|Mingay, G. E.]] "Review of Captain Swing" from ''English Historical Review'', Volume 85 (337), 1970, p.&nbsp;810.
* Samuel, Raphael & [[Gareth Stedman Jones|Jones, Gareth Stedman]] (editors) ''Culture, Ideology and Politics: essays for Eric Hobsbawm'', London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.
* [[Hugh Seton-Watson|Seton-Watson, H.]] "Manufactured Mythologies: review of ''The Invention of Tradition''" from ''Times Literary Supplement'', Volume 4207, 18 November 1983, p.&nbsp;1270.
* Smith, P. "No Vulgar Marxist: review of ''On History''"from ''[[Times Literary Supplement]]'', Volume 4917, 27 June 1997, p. 31.
* Snowman, Daniel. "Eric Hobsbawm" from ''History Today'', Volume 49, Issue 1, January 1999, pp.&nbsp;16–18.
* {{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Snyder |year=2010 |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |location=London |publisher=The Bodley Head |isbn=978-0-224-08141-2 }}
* [[Thane, Pat|Thane, P.]]; G. Crossick & R. Floud (editors) ''The Power of the Past: essays for Eric Hobsbawm'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
* Thane, P., & E. Lunbeck. "Interview with Eric Hobsbawm", in: ''Visions of History'', edited by H. Abelove, et al., Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1983; pp.&nbsp;29–46.
* [[Eugen Weber|Weber, Eugen]]. "What Rough Beast?" from ''Critical Review'', Volume 10, Issue # 2, 1996, pp.&nbsp;285–298.
* Wrigley, Chris. "Eric Hobsbawm: an appreciation" from ''Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History'', Volume 38, Issue No. 1, 1984, p.&nbsp;2.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons}}
* The [https://www.hobsbawm.shca.ed.ac.uk/ Eric Hobsbawm Bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222132636/https://www.hobsbawm.shca.ed.ac.uk/ |date=22 December 2020 }}, which contains a complete listing of Hobsbawm's published books, journal articles, book chapters, reviews, newspaper articles and pamphlets, as well as his unpublished work and his private papers.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQ4dfC34TI/ "Eric Hobsbawm: The Consolations of History"], documentary about Hobsbawm's life and work by the ''[[London Review of Books]]''.
* [https://mrc.epexio.com/records/EJH Catalogue of Hobsbawm's papers], held at the [[Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120925025655/http://www.davidhigham.co.uk/clients/Eric_Hobsbawm.htm Eric Hobsbawm page] at [[David Higham Associates|David Higham]].
* [http://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/eric-hobsbawm Profile] in the ''London Review of Books''.
* Maya Jaggi, [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/14/biography.history "A question of faith"], ''The Guardian'', 14 September 2002.
* Richard W. Slatta, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100713193529/http://www.ncsu.edu/acontracorriente/spring_04/Slatta.pdf "Eric J. Hobsbawm's Social Bandit: A Critique and Revision"], ''A Contracorriente'', 2004.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040302051923/http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=7315 UCLA International Institute:: Eric Hobsbawm Speaks on His New Memoir]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100701011959/http://www.barcelonametropolis.cat/en/page.asp?id=21&ui=38 Interview with Eric Hobsbawm and Donald Sassoon: European Identity and Diversity in Dialogue], ''[[Barcelona Metropolis]]'', Spring 2008.
* [https://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1121594 Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane], 13 September 2009 (video).
* [http://www.booksandideas.net/Where-have-the-rebels-gone.html "Where have the rebels gone? An interview with Eric Hobsbawm"] (video), ''Books & Ideas'', 21 January 2010.
* {{Cite journal | last = Hobsbawm | first = Eric (interview) | title = World Distempers | journal = [[New Left Review]] | volume = II | issue = 61 | date = January–February 2010 | url = http://newleftreview.org/II/61/eric-hobsbawm-world-distempers }}
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/HIShobsbawm.htm Brief bio and links to articles], Spartacus Educational
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093pss "Professor Eric Hobsbawm"] on ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'', [[BBC]], 10 March 1995.
* [[Eric Foner]], [http://www.thenation.com/article/170268/remembering-eric-hobsbawm-historian-social-justice "Remembering Eric Hobsbawm, Historian for Social Justice"], ''[[The Nation]].'' 1 October 2012.
* Christian Hogsbjerg, [http://isj.org.uk/eric-hobsbawms-histories/ "Eric Hobsbawm's histories"], ''International Socialism'' 157, 9 January 2018.
* [https://www.andrewwhitehead.net/political-voices-eric-hobsbawm.html Audio of interviews with Eric Hobsbawm], including his memories of Berlin in 1933.

{{s-start}}
{{s-ach|aw}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Justin Rosenberg]]}}
{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|[[Deutscher Memorial Prize]]}}|years=1995}}
{{s-aft|after=Donald Sassoon}}
{{s-end}}

{{Historians of Europe}}
{{Socialism}}
{{Communism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobsbawm, Eric}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2012 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century British historians]]
[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century British historians]]
[[Category:21st-century British male writers]]
[[Category:Academics of Birkbeck, University of London]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British anti-capitalists]]
[[Category:British anti-fascists]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Jewish British writers]]
[[Category:British Marxist historians]]
[[Category:British Marxist writers]]
[[Category:British Marxists]]
[[Category:British people of Austrian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:British people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery]]
[[Category:Communist Party Historians Group members]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members]]
[[Category:Contemporary historians]]
[[Category:Deaths from leukemia in England]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in England]]
[[Category:Deutscher Memorial Prize winners]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Historians of Europe]]
[[Category:Historians of the French Revolution]]
[[Category:Jazz writers]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Jewish historians]]
[[Category:Jewish socialists]]
[[Category:Labor historians]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour]]
[[Category:People educated at St Marylebone Grammar School]]
[[Category:Royal Army Educational Corps soldiers]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers soldiers]]
[[Category:Scholars of nationalism]]
[[Category:World historians]]