Eric Hobsbawm: The Consolations of History
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- In this documentary, Anthony Wilks traces the connections between the events of Eric Hobsbawm’s life and the history he told, from his teenage years in Germany and his communist membership, to the jazz clubs of 1950s Soho and the makings of New Labour, taking in Italian bandits, Peruvian peasant movements and the development of nationalism in the modern world, with help from the assiduous observations of MI5. The film features contributions from Frances Stonor Saunders, Richard J. Evans, John Foot, Stefan Collini, Marlene Hobsbawm and Donald Sassoon, as well as Hobsbawm himself in extensive archive footage.
Subscribe to the LRB from just £1 per issue: mylrb.co.uk/ad...
Read more in the LRB:
Hobsbawm on Weimar Germany: lrb.me/hobsbaw...
Hobsbawm on his days as a jazz critic: lrb.me/hobsbaw...
Hobsbawm on Hungary in 1956: lrb.me/hobsbaw...
Frances Stonor Saunders on Hobsbawm's MI5 files: lrb.me/hobsbaw...
Perry Anderson on 'The Age of' series: lrb.me/anderso...
Audio in the film courtesy of the Hay Festival. Find more here: www.hayfestiva...
Turkish subtitles kindly provided by Dr. Ugur Pece of Lehigh University.
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What a treat. Pity that the vulgarity of daily political discourses has been used to negatively frame his work. His contribution in understanding where we come from and who we are should be universally celebrated. Thanks for uploading this.
Dude you can’t lie about historical facts! Where did you go to school ?
🤣🤣
The first time I readed Hobsbawn was three years ago in the College, at the history class.
Im studying politic science and the perspective that brings the historian about the time and live gave me a love to the history.
Now Im reading Bloch and Judt.
Great documentary film.
And I thank you from Mexico 🇲🇽
حقيقة هذا الرجل خلاني احب التاريخ و الاهم احترام التاريخ و قيمة التوثيق و كذلك الموضوعيه بالنظر للاحداث
Ha ha th - th- th -b-b-b-b-p-p-p-p
Thanks for posting this! Where else could a Yank see one of his favorite authors in the flesh? American TV? Not, as you say, bloody likely.
A rare documentary, artfully constructed by the digital producer for the London Review of Books Andrew Wilks, screamingly relevant themes, engagingly paced, accompanied by music with a purpose. At the center is a life of a historian, a multilinguist with big ideas and a torch fuelled by personal heritage and experience, pointed at phenomena, movements that propel change since modern history began.
Well said.
I met him when Past&Present asked me to contribute a couple of articles on good riots in XVIIIth century Spain, part of my research for my dissertation at Oxford. He helped me so much, as board member of the prestigious periodical. I always admired his historical work and him as a man with so many interests. Witty, curious and funny. Thank you
Food riots, sorry.
@@rodriguezdiazlaura Thanks for making the correction. I was wondering how a person differentiates the good riots from the not so good riots. :) That's pretty impressive you were able to get the dissertation help from Eric Hobsbawm. By the way, the three dots you may see on the right margin of your comments is a link that will show you you have the option to edit your comments if you push on it.
@@Cyallaire thanks
maravilloso documental, con los tiempos necesarios y justos para este enorme historiador. Muchas gracias por los subtítulos en castellano. Gracias.
Great documentary about this great historian. Congratulations to the staff that made it possible.
gxvc
What a life. I have read his books and learned to "see" history in the way in which he presented it. It helps that his writing is clear yet profound, and built upon by a superb scholarly mind keen to pass on what he had learned. I came to like Eric Hobsbawm through his writing and his books and i'm sure if i met him i would have liked him as a person. Thanks for posting this documentary, for those who know only a small amount about EH its a perfect personal and professional encapsulated biography.
Absolutely brilliant analysis. So lucid and enlightening.
This documentary and his views are very relevant and valid in understanding our contempory world, at least the contempory Europe.
Thank you for making this documentary publicly available. (İlgilenenler için Türkçe altyazı var 🇹🇷)
So very glad I found this. I have a number Eric's books which I delve into on occasions. To me he is was a fascinating man and historian. Interesting documentary. Thank you.
Absolutely stellar documentary. So interesting.
This was fantastic. Thank you for making it available to watch for free.
thanks for tweeting it.
Thank for the wonderful banquet of precious memories of the century
Your channel is great btw.
I don’t know
Awesome watch, very interesting
This is a truly masterful documentary and I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I can't think of a better introduction to a life such as this one. Thanks so much for making it available to me.
Fantastic piece of work. Best thing I’ve seen in TH-cam in recent memory. Thank you
A very well made documentary of a great public intellectual whom I owe enormous debt for the enlightenment he brought in me through his remarkable understanding and articulation of more than two hundred years of history of which I have lived nearly the last quarter. Respect and gratitude.
Inspiring historian. Hobsbawm's work was instrumental in my MA in British Cultural Studies
Raymond Williams' 'Culture and Society' is a favourite for me.
@@hazelwray4184 : Indeed,I read the book while doing my research too
I've had the great honor of watching Hobsbawn giving a lecture at Parati's international literary fair in 2004.
Que beleza João! Inveja aqui kkk
@@cytata5359 Valeu.
Que privilegio, un saludo desde MX
Wow, this was so inspiring! Thank you for making this
Un excelente trabajo. Gracias por publicarlo. Saludos...
This was awesome, thanks from Brazil.
Hell yes!
amazing and compelling documentary. thank you.
Outstanding
Completely enthralling piece
As a tribute to Hobsbawm 's plurilinguism I will write this comment in french (my native language ). J'ai beaucoup aimé ce documentaire. Comme beaucoup de Français j'apprécie les livres et travaux d'Eric Hobsbawm depuis longtemps. Ce qui était assez original pour un historien anglais dans les années 1950-1960, il a très vite été intéressé par les méthodes et les thématiques initiées par certains historiens français avant que cela ne deviennent à la mode dans les années 1960 et 1970. Il a participé au séminaire de Braudel au collège de France dans les années 1950 je pense. Et il pouvait lire les livres de Febvre, Braudel, Goubert, Ladurie avant qu'ils ne soient traduits en anglais et le documentaire explique bien (mais trop rapidement à mon goût) ces influences réciproques. If you can understand french you might be interested to listen to this 2 hours long interview which was broadcast on France Culture in 2003 (by the way his french is as good as his english or german !). Here it is with a dot missing - cuttly/hobsbawm-in-french-2003
Great stuff! Learnt a lot!
To paraphrase the blurb on my old copy of Aldous Huxley's _Island_ ('better and truer than _Brave New World_'): "better and truer than Adam Curtis". :)
True. The social role of a historian is a deeply important one, where the talents and attributes of the individual historian lends itself to either illuminating or obfuscating receptive minds. Curtis, for all his charms, falls more into the latter category.
a brilliant scholar &apologist of the most awful
things in"recent"history
One of my favorite historians of the modern world! Marxism hardly ever gets in the way of his clear outlook, and his prose is always a delight. This has been a splendid look at the life.
A fantastic portrait of Hobsbawn!
I ADORE READING
Really great documentary if only for the fantastic footage used historical and modern
I have always been keen on reading Real books (Hard Copy) rather than electronic ones. I always wish I could write several books in several topics. But the life pace is much faster than I could aford to do so. This film was very inspiring as I get familia4 with this great Personage. Thanks
Wonderful doc.
Humans' never-ending search to the future!
A matter of looking forward to the past...
A universal human trait; endeavour? Or ostensibly, a mindset that's been spread across continents due to Western European expansionism, the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolution.
thankyou Will and Ariel
Much thanks from Brooklyn. Beautiful mind
he also accurately foresaw the things to come , that we witness nowadays. the closing chapters of the Age of Extremes clearly depict the processes in motion now.
Splendid!
How lovely he got to thank his wife.
Eric a historian&educationist,his articles and insights on historical events are indeed the door to an impact towards intellectual progress,against the exploitative capitalist forces.
#respectfromIndia🇮🇳
Awesome documentary, I’m currently studying EH in one of my disciplines in college in Brazil.
beautiful! thank you!
Good doc
Great men are always followed by those in power whose way of life, wealth and positions are threaten by truth and idealism, violence will always be used to maintain control of resources, under the guise of progress and nationalism at the expense of the masses, who are sadly, viewed as expendable, tragically, this was a very good documentary of someone I wish I had known, but life often takes us different paths going in the same direction, trying to understand lesson of history, truth and knowledge, only to realize that psychopathic humans are and will always resort to barbarism to protect their wealth and power at the expense of those they consider peasants, especially intellectual ones...thank you, Peace!
Si lo subtitulan al español, los voy a querer mucho
Los primeros 40 minutos están subtitulados al español. Luego continuan pero en inglés.
Está subtitulado en castellano hasta el minuto 45 de la peli, año 1962 en el relato apx
@@mogallana si pero están a destiempo e incompletos.
@@carmenbijou6773 lo que vi me pareció a destiempo e incompleto.
The consolations are well listed.......
Was Hobsbawm acquainted with Bertrand Russell?
I first encountered his AGE OF REVOLUTION while I was 17.
Where is the IMDb entry?
He never seemed to write much if at all about who funded these movements. I'm unable to find in any of his work an explanation of who funded Lenin.
"No return to the old system is possible."
How right you were Eric.
#TheNewNormal
#TheGreatReset #4IR
Does anyone know the piece at 21:25
Yes, Shostakovich String Quartet No 3, first movement
@@londonreviewofbooks Thanks :))
Not sure when the interview for a Spanish channel was recorded, but his forecast that untrammelled wild-west globalisation would lead to the rise of post-fascism -- I would name Trump, Putin, Johnson, Bolsonaro, Urban, Erdogan -- was spot on.
Utopic
1:10:52 onwards. I was wondering when he made this interview. Spoken today it would come in the category of No Shirt Sherlock.
Or something like that.
(edit) Especially this bit 1:12:03
Wow I had no idea of any of this. I read three of the Age of books while I worked nights a a factory 5 or 6 years ago. His guess about the rise of right wing nationalism is turning out to be correct unfortunately.
I don't really get why he remained a member of the CP given his disdain for both the Soviet and British parties.
I think he wanted to remain loyal to the noble ideal of Marxist communism even though it was impossible to ignore the catastrophic perversion it had become in practice. The problem was never Marxist ideology in itself, but rather the dismal failure of the wretched human race to live up to that ideal.
@@solitarianihilista1454 I think that a bit naive.
He presumably considered it the best organization existing on the British left, whatever could be said against it.
@@solitarianihilista1454 the bolsheviks established a monopoly of power, which wasn't in line with the slogan: all power to the Soviets. Nor was it in line with 'the dictatorship of the proletariat' which refers to class, not one party.
15 foreign powers attacked Russia in 1918.
the Revolution occurred in a country made up of 80% peasants.
Revolutions in Germany, Italy, France, Britain didn't occur, and the Soviet Union had to deal with its isolation and internal contradictions alone.
At 1:12:30 Hobsbawm predicts: "The political advance of the people who created enormous tragedies in the 20th C. It won't be fascism but it would be the same sort of family of ultra right wing, nationalist or fundamentalist things. That is enough to be afraid of." Yikes. Sounds familiar.
It does
we in India as well are seeing the rise and restoration of upper caste-Hindus right-wing party and it is scary and to be afraid of...Its like his words became reality
No! Trump is too convenient and leads the religious-leftist astray. Trump was a continuity candidate, just like Thatcher. I have difficulty understanding why leftists don't see this.
There was much of the British socialist in Thatcher and much of the early 20th century Democrat about Trump. Populism, like neoliberalism is a sham - mostly an invented bogeyman.
The greatest threats to our freedoms come from the corporate world and from the drivel spewed out by people who continue to stumble in the footsteps of men like Hobsbawm.
Fascism has much of the left about it and it's a fantasy to pretend the left is the polar opposite of fascism. The ways of the fascists are coming back - this time as compassion and solidarity.
I'd also add that like nearly all liberals and all other Marxists, EH got nationalism wrong.
Why should we take him seriously?
Let’s see -- where are the most brutal regimes? NKorea, China, Cuba. Who killed more in the 20C than Hitler? Communist regimes. But yea, the REAL danger is....Hungary.
Misplaced loyalty in staying with those Stalinists in the CPGB. Those who left did the right thing so I didn't like hearing him criticising ' those leavers.'
or the "premature anti-fascists" who were purged for opposing Hitler at moment inconvenient for the Kremlin.
His silence about the crimes of communism is inexcusable, especially the USSR’s antisemitism and murder of millions of its citizens. When asked if it would have made a difference to him at the time if he had known about the millions dying at the hands of the communists in 1934 he said probably not…”Because in a period in which, as you might imagine, mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still have been worth backing…”
It's a shame that people with the power to head off the forces Hobsbawm could so clearly see were imperiling the world, failed either to understand or take seriously what he was saying and were therefore unable or unwilling to act.
You mean like Stalin and Mao?
im afraid to say that eric was used, without his knowing, all his life by the mi5 and cia as a reporter for the organic organization of the people as a first insider, in latin america, in italy and britain, its a shame he didnt notice it, but still a great man.
Can you elaborate?
The woman sys "they were already thinking of him as a 'suspec'"; but that was one observer's word in a report & what term would they have used otherwise? "Observed"? And would she then have made a comment about their avoidance of the word "suspect"?
31:00 so unbased
Blair: 'Thatcher in trousers.' And of course, gender diversity is all the rage now. What's next? Starmer: Blair in a skirt?
I wonder what Hobsbawn would think of the rise of "woke" multi-national capitalist corporations? Has this been the natural progression of his ideas to combine the forces of liberalism and communism? 🤔
Woke sells! So does blacklisting (cancel culture)! And racialization!
Eric Frogspawn
I like the historian but i dislike the communist but he learn a lot about the true nature of comunism specially after 1968. Anyway an interesting docuemmtary.
Please remove the jazz...
His definition of Nationalism is trash
Hobsbawm was a hypocrite. He could preach it, but not live it.
How can a person be a great historian and a communist at the same time? It's a well known factoid that we in Canada dropped the study of History in our public schools during the 1930's based on the Marxist notion: history isn't very reliable. Well, and it's true (and philosophers have said as much) , poetry is more valuable than History. But do we discontinue the study of history because of a communist half truth? Marxist do not like history because eventually history will reveal the barbarity of the bloody side of communism. Isaac Deutcher? I read his thick biography, Stalin. No one gets killed for 700 pages. What the Soviets did to Ukraine... no mention. Let us be clear about one thing: when a communist is at a secret meeting they are planning a murder. Virus anyone
Where is your source that Canadian schools "dropped the Study of History" due to a "Marxist notion"? Especially considering that one of the key things Marx is known for is his materialist conception of history, and given the numerous Marxist historians across the globe (one Canadian example being Stanley B. Ryerson.) As for Deutscher, this is what he wrote in regard to collectivization: "The overwhelming majority of the peasantry confronted the Government with desperate opposition. Collectivization degenerated into a military operation, a cruel civil war. . . . Famine stalked the towns and the black soil steppe of the Ukraine." It is fair to say Deutscher downplayed the human costs of Stalin's policies, but he certainly doesn't portray Stalin as a saintly or pacifistic figure.
Good red is dead red
Keeping files on all the left wing people and quite right too. Sadly it didn't help.
'All the left wing people'?
In what sense didn't it help?
@@hazelwray4184 we ended up with the leftist state that we live in today.
@@chrisohanlon69 You mean social and economic Liberalism? Crony Capitalism? The military Industrial Complex?
@@hazelwray4184 When their cronies are the "Woke", sadly, yes.
You can never trust anyone who keeps cats
I knew Eric... He had perspective... He asked great questions... He knew vast things... and this was well worth watching. My book on The British Marxist Historians (1984, 1995) is being issued anew this coming fall 2021 with his 1995 Foreword included.
He was a sub-standard historian overegged by left-wing intellectuals. His scholarship is shockingly bad. In short he was a pathetic grifter who turned up at every corporate event and public school lunch laid on for him.
@@AminTheMystic I don't think the accusation of "grifter" makes sense, given how so much criticism of him by anti-communists portrays him as a deluded Marxist ideologue. If he was so well-known as a historian that even capitalists were willing to pay to hear him speak, what of it? How is that contrary to the writings of Marx and Engels?
@@IsmailofeRegime Grifter is just the right word. He preached but clearly didnt practice. He was well known, but his work is shoddy. Because the establishment him bought him out. You'd think a Marxist would go as far as possible to reject overtures by capitalists.
@@AminTheMystic I don't think one can demonstrate "the establishment bought him out" simply because he gave paid speeches though. Engels was the son of a capitalist and managed the family's textile business, becoming fairly wealthy from that and from investments in other companies. He also tried to increase sales of Capital Vol. 1 by penning anonymous reviews in bourgeois journals trying to convince German capitalists that Marx provided a detailed overview of English industry. Yet no one would claim Engels was a "grifter."
Saying Hobsbawm "clearly didn't practice" makes little sense either. He was actively involved in the CPGB, at least during the 1930s-50s, and never left the party until it ceased to exist. What was he supposed to do to be a "real Marxist" in your eyes?
@@IsmailofeRegime If he is not a sellout then what is he? his type turn out at posh private school by the bucket load and never at public schools. If Engles was a sellout he was a sellout. His words should be ignored. Hypocrites the pair of them.
Ah! he was paid party memeber. So what? And in personal life he was a practising capitalist. I think my view is far more accurate.
Thank you for making this available for free viewing
A Turkish translation of the subtitles has kindly been provided by Dr. Ugur Pece and you should also find very rough, automated Spanish and Portuguese translations, but other automated translations might stop halfway because of a glitch in youtube. Sorry about that!
xx
I'll check the Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. May I send you recommendations for changes? Thanks!
@@maxheadrom3088 That would be very kind - thank you!
The parts about Latin America are very interesting. I know Hobsbawn from High School in Brazil where his texts are the basis for a lot of teaching books - even the ones used by the private school I went to.
This is a fascinating and beautifully achieved biography of Eric Hobsbawm.
beautifully accomplished; beautifully realised.
Thank you so much for releasing this documentary. Regards from argentina!
He was an amazing scholar, a walking encyclopedia and the sweetest man ever.
@@Cinestesia1 se não fosses tão burro quererias ser uma besta quadrada pois parece que o facto de transportares um penico em cima dos ombros não te permite mais do que isso.
Sorry guys, say what you want, you didn’t know him. I did, he was my dear friend. An amazing man who despite have luminosity and could walk still pumped out three books while in his 90’s.
@@Cinestesia1 This is a great quote, but posting it once is enough.
I love history. Irs amazing. And, no one can hurt you. Theyre all gone.
A wonderful historian and I believe a gentle soul.
Since we have a global audience,
It is very easy to get subtitles in "ANY LANGUAGE"
if you first "GO TO SETTINGS" (to the right of CC on most computers,)
then click on "SUBTITLES/CC,"
then check "ENGLISH (UNITED STATES),"
then check "AUTO-TRANSLATE,"
then, from the drop-down menu,
"PICK THE LANGUAGE" that you want
then click on it to put a "CHECK-MARK" in
(next to your language,)
then turn the "CC" setting off and on again,
which will reset the subtitles into your language.
That's all there is to it!
Subtitles/Captions
Great documentary you old chaps! Even this work does not explain to me about how he could stay with Stalinists in the same Party! But, he has left such a great intellectual footprint with his work that I don’t care!
I suspect he was yet another Continental Jewish giant, in the mold of Erik Fromm and not really an Englishman! That’s the only thing this bio misses about him.
A truly fantastic documentary: it outlines respectfully the intellectual and social biography of one of the most brillant historians of the twentieth century. His ability to intertwine the political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of human life and society are not matched by many others. He was consequent and open about his political viewpoints and he did never hide him self behind a false stance of a so called "impartiality" or "a non bias" that supposedly a great number of historians take.
@@Cinestesia1 Thank goodness someone is prepared to say this: the fawning on here is nauseating.
Terrible historian, terrible person
Excellent documentary, well researched with fantastic talking heads.
Would also recommend *The Stuart Hall Project (2013)* by John Akomfrah, which is similarly approached.
th-cam.com/video/MA-og9_-Yro/w-d-xo.html
One of the best documentaries ever.
Great work! It should definitely be subtitled in Portuguese, bc Hobsbawm's books are very popular in Brasil. In fact, he was an editorial phenomenon among Brazilian public.
Since we have a global audience,
It is very easy to get subtitles in "ANY LANGUAGE"
if you first "GO TO SETTINGS" (to the right of CC on most computers,)
then click on "SUBTITLES/CC,"
then check "ENGLISH (UNITED STATES),"
then check "AUTO-TRANSLATE,"
then, from the drop-down menu,
"PICK THE LANGUAGE" that you want
then click on it to put a "CHECK-MARK" in
(next to your language,)
then turn the "CC" setting off and on again,
which will reset the subtitles into your language.
That's all there is to it!
@@RobertCFried Hello Mr Fried, sorry for not having noticed it before. Thank you for your professorial ilumination to this poor third-world Hobsbawm fan.
Are you from Brazil? How is that?Why EH became so popular there? That should be an interesting story
@@labraham1025 I'm not from Brazil, but I read somewhere that Hobsbawm sold over a million books in Brazil. I do not know the reason for it though.
@@labraham1025 I´m a Secondary school head where history teachers use EH as a source and reading material for international exams
I'm glad to find this documentary here
Thank for this and for transporting me back to a happier time when History occupied the place it deserves in school curricula and I dreamed of sharing my love of the subject with my charges.
I wouldn't call the first half of the 20th century a "happier time" though !
A remarkable portrait of the man. Calm, balanced, intriguing. Thank you.
a marxist. very intriguing. The current disaster of a world we live in is also due to people like him and their subversive ideas.
@@amoreazione3563 The "current disaster of a world we live in" is attributable to capitalism's own inherent contradictions. Blaming "subversive ideas" is fruitless; those ideas are themselves the consequences of capitalist development. It's akin to feudal reactionaries whining that their supposedly harmonious and "natural" societies were being undermined by liberals, Freemasons, Jews, and other "subversives."
fantastic and precious film footage of Lenin addressing a street meeting!
Thanks to the maker of this documentary and to those who brought it out for viewing. It brings one close to the person and the era he lived in.
A true polyglot.
Very profound and absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much for this documentary!
Dishonest hagiography.