Synopsis:
An incisive overview of the history of the twentieth century reviews the legacy of two world wars, the Depression, the end of colonialism, the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR, and the era's technological and scientific advances. 12,500 first printing.
Reviews:
In a vivid chronicle bristling with unorthodox views and fresh insights, British historian Hobsbawm divides the period from the outbreak of WWI to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. into three phases. The "Age of Catastrophe" (1914-47), marked by two world wars, the crumbling of colonial empires, the spread of communism and the near-breakdown of the capitalist system, ended only after the liberal West and the Soviet Union forged a temporary, bizarre alliance to defeat Hitler. Rivalry between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. dominated the ensuing "Golden Age" (1947-73), yet Hobsbawm (emeritus professor at the University of London and professor of politics at Manhattan's New School for Social Research) argues that despite Cold War rhetoric, the superpowers essentially accepted the division of the world and sought long-term peaceful coexistence. The Golden Age's real significance, he maintains, lies in explosive growth of the world economy, technological revolution and, for most of the globe, a social revolution marked by death of the peasantry, mass urbanization, the spread of literacy and the primacy of individualism over traditional constraints. The "Crisis Decades" (1973-present) have brought mass unemployment, severe cyclical slumps and a widening abyss between rich and poor nations. Hobsbawm weaves into his tapestry scientific advances, the decline of both avant-garde and classic high art and the disintegration of social relationships amid rampant individualism. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A distinguished German-born historian, professor emeritus at the University of London, summarizes--if a book more than 600 pages long can be a summary!--his thinking on the century with which his own lifetime has coincided. Hobsbawm's specialty is actually the nineteenth century; he writes now about the twentieth not only because it is in essence over and can be pondered in its entirety, but also because he can come to it fresh and see things that authorities on the period may have missed. Worked out in lovely detail (Hobsbawm definitely subscribes to the notion that historians should pay as much attention to how they express themselves as to what they express) is his argument that the twentieth century, particularly from the 1914 outbreak of World War I to the 1991 collapse of the USSR, can be most edifyingly viewed in three distinct parts, a "triptych" he calls it: an age of catastrophe from 1914 to the end of World War II, followed by a golden age up to the 1970s, and then another age of crisis lasting until the 1990s. The characteristics of those three time periods are explained not simply with erudition but brilliance; and in addition to politics, he brings economics, technology, and the arts into his discussions. Any avid reader well versed in European history will savor every wonderfully presented thought. Brad Hooper
British historian Hobsbawm is most noted for his three-volume history of the "long 19th century" (1789-1914). Here he turns his attention to what he terms the "short 20th century" ( 1914-1991), which roughly coincides with his own life. It also corresponds to the lifespan of Soviet Communism, which naturally receives a major share of attention in this account. But Hobsbawm covers ideas more than events in this book, which is international in scope. In a work addressed to "the non-academic reader with a general interest in the modern world," he assimilates mountains of information from all over the century and tries to arrange it into a cohesive whole. The result is certainly not light reading, but it is a book that most libraries will need.
Gary Williams, Southeastern Ohio Regional Lib., Caldwell
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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