Quotes by Eric Hobsbawm

About Eric Hobsbawm:

Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm was a British Marxist historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism, and nationalism. His best-known works include his trilogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789–1848, The Age of Capital: 1848–1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875–1914), The Age of Extremes on the short 20th century, and an edited volume that introduced the influential idea of "invented traditions".
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Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.

Eric Hobsbawm

As the global expansion of Indian and Chinese restaurants suggests, xenophobia is directed against foreign people, not foreign cultural imports.

Eric Hobsbawm

There is not much that even the most socially responsible scientists can do as individuals, or even as a group, about the social consequences of their activities.

Eric Hobsbawm

Utopianism is probably a necessary social device for generating the superhuman efforts without which no major revolution is achieved.

Eric Hobsbawm

It seems that American patriotism measures itself against an outcast group. The right Americans are the right Americans because they're not like the wrong Americans, who are not really Americans.

Eric Hobsbawm

Author Bio

  • NameEric Hobsbawm
  • DescriptionEric John Ernest Hobsbawm (9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British Marxist historian
  • AliasesEric John Ernest Hobsbawm
  • BornJune 9, 1917
  • DiedOctober 1, 2012
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Economic Historian; Social Historian; Historian
  • AwardsBalzan Prize