"The New Century" by Eric Hobsbawm

This spring marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the English-language publication of this little book in which the esteemed historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) pontificates about the past and present in an extended interview given in Italian to Antonio Polito.

Hobsbawm's work has always irritated, fascinated and delighted me in equal measure, and this book is no exception. He was terrifically well-informed and had by the time this book was published become a much celebrated if controversial public intellectual. The scope of his thought was extraordinary, not just in terms of topic areas, but also in terms of geography. He was a genuine international historian and commentator who had interesting things to say about a great deal. Here he covers globalisation, politics, demography, technology and imperialism, in each case expressing informed views both about historical development and potential future trajectories.

If you are a happy member of the liberal left intelligentsia - as Hobsbawm himself very much was - you will probably not appreciate the frustration those of us who are not suffer when reading his work. It seems to me to be undermined (not fatally but importantly) by a big blind spot. As an unrepentant communist he had limited appreciation of how a capitalist economy works and generates public wealth. He was also an apologist for the excesses of twentieth century communism. Here he makes these quite appalling and idealistically ignorant remarks about major (then) recent events:

"If we compare China with the communist states where the regime collapsed following the end of the Soviet Union, it is evident not only that China has not collapsed, but that it has pursued a systematic process of economic reform in the direction of a market economy. They did this successfully, in spite of serious economic and social problems, principally because state and party did not abdicate their responsibilities. They had seen what happened in the Soviet Union and did everything they could to avoid it. This in my opinion, is the real significance of Tiananmen Square."

"I am sure the great unresolved and unmentioned question of the European Union is to what extent it can be enlarged to include Muslim countries. This is why, in my opinion, Turkey has been left outside the door. Essentially the trend towards Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle Eastern and North African Countries is a reaction against the racism of European countries."

"I therefore have to admit that, while I hope I have never written or said anything about the Soviet Union that I should feel guilty about, I have tended to avoid dealing with it directly, because I knew that if I had, I would have had to have written things that would have been difficult for a communist to say without affecting my political activity and the feelings of my comrades. This is why I decided to become a nineteenth century historian rather than a twentieth-century one."

A brilliant man, but one who was I fear was ultimately something of a moral coward.