The Age of Hobsbawm

Extremely readable, [this] book is a fascinating critical portrait…Chabal’s biography offers a balanced and critical portrait of a great historian whose life and thought were deeply intertwined with his century. -- Enzo Traverso * Ideas Letter *
Chabal’s biography emulates its subject, in the clarity of its prose and its avoidance of jargon… Any competent biographer would place an intellectual in his or her intellectual milieu, as Chabal does well. -- Adam Sisman * New Statesman *
Chabal shifts the focus to the ‘intellectual worker’ and to the complex web of institutional, publishing and political networks that made possible [Hobsbawm’s] success – and, indeed, his legendary status. -- Christian Raimo * La Stampa *
Superb…For Chabal, Hobsbawm was what the French would call an ‘intellectual engagé’: a committed intellectual. He was, Chabal writes, ‘a communist, and, from the age of about fourteen, communism acted as the guiding thread for his life and work’. Unless we understand this fundamental aspect of his life, we will not be able to appreciate either Hobsbawm’s work or what endures of his contemporary appeal. -- John Merrick * Unherd *
[Chabal] charts Hobsbawm’s intellectual journey and staggering commercial success as a Marxist historian… his biography is based on prodigious research and profound knowledge of twentieth-century history and left-wing politics...Chabal’s meticulous reconstruction of [Hobsbawm's] intellectual journey is both a fitting recognition of that journey and scholarship of the highest level. -- Peter McPhee * Australian Book Review *
Chabal’s main focus is on the public man…[He] subjects Hobsbawm’s career and reputation to a careful analysis that is enlivened by a dry scepticism. -- Richard Vinen * Literary Review *
The Age of Hobsbawm is admiring of the historian’s accomplishments while mercifully free of the emotional overinvestments he inspired in earlier generations…Chabal offers a decidedly twenty-first century perspective, concerned more with explaining the global phenomenon that was Hobsbawm than judging the man or seeking to revive his ideas. -- Erik Linstrum * Jacobin *
Ultimately, Chabal captures the tragedy of a historian incapable of confronting his own. Meticulously researched, this brilliant biography will undoubtedly tempt you to read Hobsbawm for yourself. * Indian Express *
[A] penetrating analysis of the evolution of Hobsbawm’s craft as a writer of history…Chabal’s work has set the standard for analysing Hobsbawm’s work. -- Andrew Bonnell * Inside Story *
Chabal is less interested in discovering an unknown Hobsbawm than in explaining the making of the historian and political intellectual…The result is something larger than a biography: a history of twentieth-century intellectual life viewed through an individual who moved between communism and academia, Britain and continental Europe, specialist scholarship and mass publishing. -- Iker Itoiz Ciaurriz * Jacobin *
An enthralling intellectual biography of 'communist polymath' and historian Eric Hobsbawm…Throughout, Chabal uses Hobsbawm’s work to ruminate on history-making and ‘the hidden structures that support... ideas.’ It’s a remarkably illuminating portrait of the man, his times, and his discipline. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *
Chabal’s erudite intellectual biography traces Hobsbawm’s career from his earliest involvement with left-wing movements…to his emergence as a widely read historian, professor, and intellectual…This is a thoughtful study of one of the 20th century’s most influential academics. -- Chad Statler * Library Journal (starred review) *
[Chabal] convincingly portrays Hobsbawm as a man capable of both change and continuity, two topics dear to any historian’s heart. -- Elizabeth Stice * Orange Blossom Ordinary *
At a time when historical research and teaching are under attack, Emile Chabal’s careful reconstruction of the life of one of the century’s greatest historians is both a major scholarly and an ethical act. Chabal offers a reckoning with Hobsbawm’s analytical successes and missteps from India to Latin America in addition to an ethnography of the historian’s craft. A love letter to the discipline as practiced at its highest level. -- Quinn Slobodian, author of Globalists and Hayek's Bastards
TheAge of Hobsbawm is something rare and special, a proper historical study of the ideas of a British historian. By placing Hobsbawm firmly not only in his times but in his many particular contexts—whether British, European, or global communism, elite higher education, or journalism—this book superbly enriches our understanding of his work and life. -- David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation
An impressive portrait of one of the great historians. Chabal deftly follows Hobsbawm through the twists and turns of his life, documenting the contours of his political commitment, his pursuit of historical knowledge, and his constant intellectual renewal. The result is a window into the many political and intellectual worlds of a remarkable scholar. -- Katrina Forrester, author of In the Shadow of Justice
Writing a biography of a historian like Hobsbawm is no mean feat. Emile Chabal has not just succeeded in pulling it off but also produced a book that all who admire Hobsbawm will read with great interest. By examining his subject as both a professional historian and an "engaged" intellectual, Chabal reveals the unique path that made Hobsbawm one of the greatest historians of our time. -- Shlomo Sand, author of The Invention of the Jewish People