Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the Twentieth Century
By the time of his death, in 2012, Hobsbawm was one of a small handful of serious historians to enjoy worldwide recognition, even celebrity. That he was a lifelong committed Marxist in a world that by his later years had largely come to reject Marxism in its more overt forms did not diminish—and may even have amplified—his renown. Yet in the end, he will likely be remembered not for his politics but for the breadth of his knowledge and the suppleness of his arguments. Both are on ample display in this selection, which collects a variety of speeches, essays, and book reviews from late in Hobsbawm’s career. For the most part, they address the twentieth century and the various forms of fragmentation and failure that it dealt to the artistic and intellectual ideals of high culture. His erudition is on particularly robust display in pieces on the social function of the work of scientists Joseph Needham and John Desmond Bernal, for example, and in a succinct dissection of his fellow Viennese thinker Karl Kraus. An essay on the myth of the American cowboy also asks serious questions about the cultural significance of animal herders in Western culture. Despite some flat moments when Hobsbawm turns from the past to speculate about the future, this is a pithy and varied collection that Hobsbawm’s many fans will appreciate. --Brendan Driscoll