Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life

by Eric J. Hobsbawm

Book Overview

Eric Hobsbawm has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest living historians. Called "a lyrical, pungent, and provocative memoir" by Publishers Weekly , Interesting Times offers a personal tour... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037542234X
• ISBN13: 9780375422348
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Pantheon Books
• Length: 447 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

There is such a thing as too much cynicism

It is truly a pity a Nobel Prize for History has never been made, because surely Eric Hobsbawm would deserve it, and considering his age it may well soon be too late. Hobsbawm (originally Hobsbaum) is one of the world's greatest living historians, author of a series of popular as well as highly acclaimed works of history spanning from the 18th Century to the 20th. He has also always been a source of controversy, mainly because of his lifelong membership of or allegiance to Communism in some form, in particular the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) during its lifespan. For this reason, the historians and commentators of the right have always decried him, slandered him and provoked him, but Hobsbawm's reputation has withstood this assault gloriously. In "Interesting Times", Hobsbawm has taken the step of writing his own autobiography. Now normally an autobiography of a famous figure is interesting for two reasons: first, to see the development of his or her views and positions, whether politically or scientifically; and second, to get an idea of the man or woman as an individual person, with quirks and preferences and a personality. The odd thing about this particular work, and that is perhaps the failure of autobiography as a medium, is that it succeeds very well in the former, but not at all in the latter. Hobsbawm traces his family history, tells us all about his Cambridge years, his acquaintance with Communism, his personal familiarity with basically every significant European Communist of the past century as well as every significant historian of the same, his struggles within the CPGB to promote a sane political line, and so forth. Along the way, we get some slight comments on the occasional lady of interest, and some reflections on his politics. But that is it - we get almost no sense of Eric Hobsbawm the man, and what little sense we do get is actually not very sympathetic at all. Hobsbawm is relentingly cynical about politics as well as the individuals he knows, and often his descriptions are along the lines of "I much admired the qualities of this man, and I learned much from him. But I never respected him at all" or "although I had good times there, I don't think I will ever visit again", which come off as oddly hostile. He has very little sense of hope or optimism left about anything, it seems, and although this is understandable given his disappointments in politics and the relentless political pressure he is under from his colleagues, I do think Hobsbawm cedes far too much to his opponents and should be much more combative about the performances and possibilities of Communism. As it stands, he basically shrugs it off as a personal idiosyncrasy that he is attached to, which is doing both Communism and himself a disservice. That is not to say that reading this autobiography is not enjoyable. Hobsbawm gives a very well-balanced overview of the entire 20th century through his life, and his reflections are often sound enough. Asid

Highly readable and interesting

This is a biography that is worth reading, also to be recommended as a mentor reading for youngsters. This book shows how a young boy from Austria, whose life was shaped by the rise and fall of the nazis, came of age in twentieth century. He is a distinguished and unapologetically Marxist historian. He vividly recalls his cambridge days and the ideas that shaped his mind. I myself always like to read his other books for the historical wisdom that lacks these days. For example, as opposed to Bernard Lewis, who thinks that US is remote and uninterested in world affairs particularly in the middle east, Eric Hobsbawm writes "Our problem is rather that the US empire does not know what it wants to do or can do with its power, or its limits. It merely insists that those who are not with it are against it. That is the problem of living at the apex of the 'American Century'." (-p.410) This is the wisdom that I am talking about.

Great autobiography of Hobsbawm

This book is a very good autobiography. Let first me state that I don't share a lot of Hobsbawm's politics (he was a member of Britain's Communist party for more than half a century). Yet I have always found him a very engaging writer. Maybe because of his age - he was born in 1917 - he is immune to the neomarxist, postmodern cant that have afflicted much of leftist writers since the 1960s. His writing style is instead simple and to the point. He tells the story of his life - the story of his parents, his accidental birth in Egypt, growing up in Vienna as a jew, the sudden death of his father and mother in a short time during his teenage years, his life as a young man in Berlin in the early 30s, his coming to England, his years in Cambridge, joining England's Communist Party, his rejection of Zionism, his life (wasted, according to him) during World War II, a visit to the Soviet Union in the 1950s, his position after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, his later visits to Latin America - in a candid, simple and matter of fact, way. A very engaging book even if you disagree with his politics.

Interesting and - at least personally - lucky times

Who ever is interested in newer history, in extensive portraits of European (and partly non-European) countries or single landscapes and towns (like Cambrigde) and in cultures in their different expressions can raise a treasure here. Already the chapters about the France and Italy of the decades between 1930 and 1995 (the author actually experienced this period of time personally) are wonderful, small books for itself. Written excellently this book can easily be read and is never superficial. A fine consumption perhaps like the red wine to a good meal. Unfortunately, it is also the slightly melancholy look back to the times that more and more seem to have been the golden age of the last centuries. In terms of Hobsbawm who simplifies consciously it were the times when the rich ones had to fear the poor ones. Hobsbawm considers his own life as an unusual and not at all foreseeable case of luck. It is generous that he invides us to take part in his review of interesting and personally lucky times.It is one of the best books that I know. I would like to always have a stack to the hand - for giving away a copy to friends.

A fascinating memoir

There has been much discussion in American intellectual life about the appeal of Communism to intellectuals. But much of this talk reveals little that is profound, because it is not intended to. It is less designed to understand the traison des clercs than to applaud both the author and the reader for resistance to its temptations. The career of E.J. Hobsbawm complicates this self-regard. Here is a historian who is regarded by almost all as a principled and distinguished historian, a man whose works exude moderation, calm and good sense yet who belonged to the Communist Party of Great Britain until the collapse of the Soviet Union. He helped to found, and was chairman, of the British Communist Party Historian's Group at perhaps the darkest period of Stalinist terror against intellectuals, yet in 1952 he helped to found, and for decades was a crucial figure of "Past and Present," the leading journal of history in the English-speaking world.How to explain this anomaly? It is important to point out that he opposed the 1956 invasion of Hungary and that by 1968 both he and the party opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia and took a much more liberal Eurocommunist line. It is important to point out that much of this has to do with tact, both on his part and that of the British party. He wrote little on history after 1914 until 1989 and held no party offices, and the party did not criticize him. It should be clear, since recent reviews by David Pryce-Jones in "The New Criterion" and Richard Pipes in "Commentary," do everything to confuse the issue, that Hobsbawm's ideal from the sixties to the eighties was Berlingeur, not Brezhnev, that he opposed Tony Benn and preferred Neil Kinnock to Michael Foot, and that De Gaulle and FDR are the world leaders that get the most praise here. In contrast to Pryce-Jones's hysterical and unsupported assertions, Hobsbawm's Communist Party membership did not undermine his integrity as a historian. (Though one wonders about Pryce-Jones' own competence, where he makes the incorrect assertion that "The Age of Extremes" does not mention the Gulag.)"Yes, but what about before 1956?" Hobsbawm admits that he supported Communism's anti-Social Democrat strategy in Weimar (when he was 15), and that he supported the Nazi-Soviet Pact. He reminds us that for the first eight months of the war the conservatives of France and Britain thought less of attacking Hitler than of trying to attack the Soviet Union in the course of defending Finland. We learn of his doubts and nervousness, in his case it was over the break with Tito, the Rajk trial in Hungary and a depressing 1954 visit to the Soviet Union. We learn much about the internationalism and efficiency of the party and the fact that for better or for worse it was the major revolutionary movement around.But this is a valuable book not simply because it describes how a rational and thoughtful man could believe in a course of political action that was in retrospect patentl