Author Emile Chabal will talk about his new book, an intellectual biography of Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.
Tuesday 2 March 2027 on-line at 7pm
All welcome, but you will need to register in advance:-
https://ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/OExSNWuETUeqXG9JnFEQ7A
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was one of the foremost European intellectuals of the twentieth century. He published hundreds of articles on modern history and culture, and his books became canonical works and bestsellers on both sides of the Atlantic. His crystal-clear writing, vast erudition, and ability to make his Marxist analysis digestible to a wide audience brought him worldwide renown.
Yet Hobsbawm was no academic hermit. Through his globetrotting journalism, he was embedded in an extraordinary web of politicians, activists, and fellow intellectuals across Europe, South Asia, and the Americas, including Manmohan Singh, Che Guevara, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Fernand Braudel, E. P. Thompson, Arno Mayer, and Salvador Allende. Emile Chabal traces the origins of Hobsbawm’s ideas and most famous writings by exploring his scholarly foundations, delving deep into the archives to uncover hidden links and unexpected conversations that shaped his pathbreaking work.
Going well beyond the Ages series of modern history books for which Hobsbawm is best known, Chabal offers the first substantial interpretation of Hobsbawm’s entire body of writing. Indeed, The Age of Hobsbawm is also a trove of unique insights into the generations of Marxist writers with whom Hobsbawm was in conversation—authors whose work continues to shape political debates globally.
Emile Chabal is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Edinburgh. He is a historian of postwar Europe, with a particular interest in political and intellectual history. He has written widely on France, the politics of migration, and the intellectual history of the European left.