What is Eric Hobsbawm theory?

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”.

Who was the first Communist leader in the world?

In the 1840s, German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx, who was living in England after fleeing the authorities in the German states, where he was considered a political threat, began publishing books in which he outlined his theories for a variety of communism now known as Marxism.

How does Hobsbawm define nationalism?

Hobsbawm defines nationalism as the ideology that the political and national units should coincide. He views the nation as a changing, evolving, modern construct that is brought into being by nationalism, and not the other way around.

Who is Eric Hobsbawm and what is his conception of world history?

Eric Hobsbawm was a historian and a Communist. The first pursuit brought him great success. When he died, in 2012, at the age of ninety-five, nearly all of his books were still in print, his writings had been translated into more than fifty languages, and he was eulogized across the globe.

What is the Marxist approach to history?

The Marxist view of history is that history is governed by universal laws and that according to these laws, a society moves through a series of stages, with the transition between stages being driven by class struggle.

What does proto nationalist mean?

1. Devotion, especially excessive or undiscriminating devotion, to the interests or culture of a particular nation-state. 2. The belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.

Is Eric Hobsbawm a modernist?

In his four-volume history of the modern world, Hobsbawm departs almost completely from Marxist attitudes to culture. He celebrates cinema and modernist art as powerful cultural forces, ones he doesn’t even attempt to reduce to economic determinants.

Why did Eric Hobsbawm age extremes?

The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991 is a book by Eric Hobsbawm, published in 1994. In it, Hobsbawm comments on what he sees as the disastrous failures of state communism, capitalism, and nationalism.

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