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The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 Paperback – November 26, 1996

by Eric Hobsbawm (Author)
ISBN-13: 978-0679772538 ISBN-10: 0679772537 Edition: 1st Vintage Books ed
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (November 26, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679772537
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679772538
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

The work is challenging, learned, brilliant in its analytical power, wide-ranging in its lucid exposition of literary, aesthetic and scientific achievments and packed with novel insight. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW Brilliant. TLS --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

This magisterial volume follows the death of ancient traditions, the triumph of new classes, and the emergence of new technologies, sciences, and ideologies, with vast intellectual daring and aphoristic elegance. Part of Eric Hobsbawm's epic four-volume history of the modern world, along with The Age of Capitalism, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes.
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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's E. J. Hobsbawm Page
E. J. Hobsbawm
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Customer Reviews

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First off, I should say that this book is a good overview of western European history for the time period it covers.
J. Edgar Mihelic
Hobsbawm's argument is clear and convincing, and does an excellent job synthesizing all of European history during a 59-year-period into a 300-page book.
Stephen R. Laniel
Irrespective of the simply technical, however, the Age of Revolution suggests why Hobsbawm is considered to be one of the great modern historians.
jpisano@shrike.depaul.edu

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Among the best survey's of the era.
By Virgil on July 6, 2002
Format: Paperback
The sign of a well-written and well-argued book is that it is one that challenges your world view by making you re-think and review your position. It doesn't matter that it convinces you, it matters that it makes you sharpen your thought process. The Age of Revolution does this well.
Hobsbawm's Age of Revolution (and his entire "Age of..." series) sees western history in marxian terms, a distinctly non-American approach. I must admit that I have a special affinity for Age of Revolution. I first read it in the early 80's as an undergraduate in history and while it didn't make me anywhere near a marxist it was the first to allow me to see history from a different angle than conventional/traditional histories. I've been a reader of Hobsbawm ever since, disagreeing- often- with his analysis, but always respecting his perspective.
Age of Revolutions deals with the decisive era that began with the French Revolution and ends with the revolutions of 1848 (and includes of course the Industrial Revolution). Hobsbawm writes as from a generalist perspective for the general reader of history (for non-historian's at least some background in Western European history is recommended before tackling this book).
A classic writing of European history.
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55 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Hobsbawm enlightens about an enlightening age
By jpisano@shrike.depaul.edu on August 14, 1998
Format: Paperback
Though it was originally published in 1962, Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Revolution still can be considered one of the most astute and authoritative analyses of the French and Industrial Revolutions. Through his recognition that these two revolutions were linked through various historical circumstances Hobsbawm illuminates the period that began with the rise of Jacobinism and ended with the failure of the 1848 uprisings. Unfortunately, Hobsbawm's work in not accesible to the novice historian. The reader must possess at least a casual knowledge of the French and Industrial Revolutions to adequetely comprehend Hobsbawm's conclusions.
Additionally, some readers might rebuke Hobsbawm for his at times awkward phrasing. Of course, most historians struggle severely with writing as a result of the monumental difficulties inherent in the endeavor of trying to record through language the essence of a historical period. Consequently, Hobsbawm should be forgiven if a few of his sentences require re-reading.
Irrespective of the simply technical, however, the Age of Revolution suggests why Hobsbawm is considered to be one of the great modern historians. Certainly, some readers are critical of Hobsbawm for his Marxist tendancies, but these crtics generally are serving their instinctual prejudices rather than maintaining an adherence to objective reasoning. Hobsbawm possesses a mind that shuns simple conclusions in favor of complex answers that raise even more complex questions.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
European History for the Intelligent and Educated Citizen
By A Customer on June 21, 2002
Format: Paperback
(4.5 stars)
In his preface, Hobsbawn explains: "The object of this book is not detailed narrative, but interpretation and what the French call haute vulgarisation. Its ideal reader is that theoretical construct, the intelligent and educated citizen, who is not merely curious about the past, but wishes to understand how and why the world has come to be what it is today and whither it is going. Hence it would be pedantic and uncalled-for to load the text with as heavy an apparatus of scholarship as it ought to carry for a more learned public. My notes therefore refer almost entirely to the sources of actual quotations and figures, or in some cases to the authority for statements which are particularly controversial or surprising."
I quote Hobswan's preface in full because it seems to capture the great strengths and modest weaknesses of this book. First, the prose. It can be cumbersome, particularly when bearing the weight of unfamiliar names, places and "isms." But the complexity is necessary in my opinion. The author is trying to stuff sweeping movements, grand figures of history, and the captial "M" Modern revolution into 300 pages of declarative sentences without abridging the truth. That's hard work. And as readers, we are asked to do some hard work as well.
But that brings up the great strength of Hobswan's work. He succeeds. Ideas like "Nationalism" and "Industrialism" become understandable in twenty pages or less. You see how the railroads were born and how they fueled speculation. How we all used to live in the country, isolated, living and dying in the same county, perhaps never to receive more than a letter (there were no newspapers, no mass media of any type) from the outside world.Read more ›
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36 of 42 people found the following review helpful
The Revolutionary Rise of the Modern Era
By Daniel R. Moy on September 8, 2001
Format: Paperback
In The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848, Eric Hobsbawm examines sixty pivotal years beginning with the construction of the first factory system in Lancashire and the French Revolution in 1789 and concluding with the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. According to Hobsbawm, the period was marked by two watershed events, the twin upheavals of the British Industrial Revolution and the contemporaneous French Revolution. Described as "twin craters of a larger, regional volcano," Hobsbawm stresses the far-reaching societal impact of these revolutions beyond the borders of the two rival nations. The introduction of a bourgeois middle class within a capitalist industrial reorganization of social relations formed what Hobsbawm identifies as "the greatest transformation in human history" since Mesopotamia. Giving rise to explosive new capital and social opportunities, the volcano unleashed unforeseen destabilizing forces capable of collapsing the top-heavy liberal, capitalist expansion. According to Hobsbawm, the publication of the Communist Manifesto marked the beginning of a worldwide social critique and chain reaction, testifying to the pervasive influence, at once promising and tragic, of the dual revolution in Britain and France.
Hobsbawm launches his discussion by first describing the agrarian/feudal world of 1780 and the preconditions that fostered the Industrial and French Revolutions. Britain was free of a feudal monarch, and private enterprise had been accepted in that nation for more than a century. Britain also had the natural resources and colonial empire necessary to provide the raw materials, primarily coal and cotton, to fuel a rapid industrial expansion.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Classic Marxist history, but still quite good

The French Revolution is only a secondary theme in this book; the primary theme is the social upheaval and unrest caused by the Industrial Revolution. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Al Singh
Four Stars

good book, fast shipping

Published 2 months ago by P. Chen
Five Stars

Nobody is better at putting a structure around the events of an important period than Hobsbawm.

Published 3 months ago by Stephen sciscento
a great book

Once again, Eric Hobsbawn brings an exhaustive description of the two revolutions that change the world, in his unique point of view...

Published 7 months ago by pbualo
Text as Intellectual work.

I would have rated a 5 but the print is rather small, in reference to the text as an intelectual excercise it is superior.

Published 11 months ago by James Stimson
Brilliant arguments occasionally tarnished by long-winded prose and...

The author's premise is that two radical revolutions, one economic and one political, were taking place in Great Britain and France, at approximately the same time. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Laurence R. Bachmann
a keeper amongst others

The book offers great insight on the two most significant events of the last few hundred years: the industrial revolution
(the eventual result of germanic reformation) and... Read more

Published 14 months ago by parmenides
Brilliant And Enlightening

This is a brilliant book by a brilliant historian. He achieves what he set out to do - to write history in an enlightening manner. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Rajiv Chopra
Educational

This is a gift for my husband but I told him the title and he's looking forward to reading it. He said it sounds interesting. He's a history buff.

Published 20 months ago by ls
dense, brilliant, evocative analysis of a watershed

This is one of those wonderful books about a subject I know well, but that pushes in new directions and yet reviews everything I have struggled to comprehend. Read more

Published on July 3, 2012 by Robert J. Crawford

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