Eric Hobsbawm

About the author

Born in Alexandria in 1917 and shaped by childhood years in Vienna and Berlin, Eric Hobsbawm became one of Britain's most commanding historians of industrial capitalism, socialism, and nationalism. His celebrated tetralogy — spanning the "long 19th century" through The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age of Empire, then the "short 20th century" in The Age of Extremes — remains a landmark of historical writing. A lifelong Marxist, his socio-political convictions ran through all his work.

He earned his Cambridge PhD after wartime service, received the Balzan Prize in 2003, and served as president of Birkbeck, University of London, until his death in 2012.