On history

In these essays, Eric Hobsbawn reflects upon the theory, practice and development of history and its relevance to the modern world.

The wide-ranging papers reflect his concern with the relations between past, present and future.

They deal with, among other subjects, the problem of writing history, its abuses and the historian's responsibility; with the history of society and "history from below"; with Marx and current historical trends or fashions; with Europe, the Russian Revolution and the descent into a world-wide barbarism that, he says, increasing for most of the 20th century, threatens to destroy the civilization we have inherited from the European Enlightenment of the 18th century.

The essays reveal the author's passionate belief in the importance of studying history.