Richard J. Evans: Review of Eric Hobsbawm's "Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the 20th Century"

Richard J Evans's The Third Reich at War is published by Penguin

Eric Hobsbawm was the best-known and most celebrated historian of the 20th century, not just in Britain but all over the world. His major works, four substantial volumes covering the history of Europe in its global context from the French revolution in 1789 to the fall of communism two centuries later, have remained in print ever since their first publication. More than half a century after it appeared, The Age of Revolution is still a staple of university reading lists. The Age of Extremes has been translated into more than 50 languages, and no doubt the foreign publication record of his other books is just as impressive.

Hobsbawm was as widely known in Italy – you can view him on YouTube speaking about Antonio Gramsci, in Italian – as he was in Brazil, where President Lula's confession that he had been the biggest influence on his thinking turned The Age of Extremes into a bestseller. Hobsbawm received honorary degrees from many countries, including Uruguay and the Czech Republic. He was an honorary citizen of Vienna. He won the Balzan prize, Europe's most coveted (and richest) award in the humanities. He was awarded the Frankfurt Book Fair's Prize for European Understanding. In the UK he was made a Companion of Honour, the equivalent of a knighthood. The news of his death, on 1 October 2012, was carried by papers across the globe....