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pistachios42's review against another edition
4.0
This took me a while to get through but I can definitely say I got a lot from it. Hobsbawm writes about the broad strokes of history in this and there's an overload of information that sometimes makes a chapter too much to read in one sitting.
One tendency Hobsbawm has is to roll off various examples and anecdotes in a single sentence, and since he does this often it can be quite dizzying. I do think as a whole though the book works to fill in most of the gaps of the twentieth century, and I really felt like I had a clear picture of the century after reading, but also an awareness of the historical periods I barely know anything about.
There's also some really fantastic observations from Hobsbawm in this, with one example in the final chapter that's been in my head a lot lately being: "After the end of the Cold War, unavowable actions were no longer so easily hidden behind the iron curtain of ‘national security’". Which I think is a really scathing prod at US foreign policy, while also being frighteningly accurate for a book written in 1995.
One tendency Hobsbawm has is to roll off various examples and anecdotes in a single sentence, and since he does this often it can be quite dizzying. I do think as a whole though the book works to fill in most of the gaps of the twentieth century, and I really felt like I had a clear picture of the century after reading, but also an awareness of the historical periods I barely know anything about.
There's also some really fantastic observations from Hobsbawm in this, with one example in the final chapter that's been in my head a lot lately being: "After the end of the Cold War, unavowable actions were no longer so easily hidden behind the iron curtain of ‘national security’". Which I think is a really scathing prod at US foreign policy, while also being frighteningly accurate for a book written in 1995.
ericlawton's review against another edition
5.0
This is my second reading. I've read his entire Age of xxx series and several other works. Hobsbawm is a socialist so you get a more of a look at the interplay of social, economic and political forces than the history of battles and leaders that the more traditional historians often provide.
His look at communism includes both the popular movements and the authoritarian states that resulted.
He also looks at other social movements such as feminism, and other major social factors such as the arts and the role of the sciences, along with their enablers and impacts.
Definitely worth a read to provide a non-standard viewpoint, very well researched and well written.
Update on finishing: Now I remember why I liked it so much the first time. A lot of detail I didn't see even through the last few decades when I was reading the news.
His final chapter remarks on "today", written in 1994 addressed issues that he saw as emerging 25 years ago mean that his disclaimer about not predicting the future was unnecessary; he picked up on trends that were emerging and now have become obvious to the rest of us, including "fake news" and climate change.
His look at communism includes both the popular movements and the authoritarian states that resulted.
He also looks at other social movements such as feminism, and other major social factors such as the arts and the role of the sciences, along with their enablers and impacts.
Definitely worth a read to provide a non-standard viewpoint, very well researched and well written.
Update on finishing: Now I remember why I liked it so much the first time. A lot of detail I didn't see even through the last few decades when I was reading the news.
His final chapter remarks on "today", written in 1994 addressed issues that he saw as emerging 25 years ago mean that his disclaimer about not predicting the future was unnecessary; he picked up on trends that were emerging and now have become obvious to the rest of us, including "fake news" and climate change.