Earlier this year the historian Richard J Evans produced a large volume of biography about the late socialist historian Eric Hobsbawm. The book is fascinating and contains much previously little known or unknown material. Of course, and the point is made factually not as a criticism, Evans is neither a marxist or a marxist historian so there is more to be said on Hobsbawm yet, but the book still stands as a very worthwhile project in its own right, or perhaps write..
More recently in the New Statesman Evans has opined on whether
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/08/eric-hobsbawm-peering-darkly-future
I listened to, argued with and latterly agreed with Eric Hobsbawm from his Forward March of Labour period on. I dont fully agree with Richard Evans assessment that Hobsbawm would be critical of Jeremy Corbyn. Hobsbawm’s Forward March laid some of the intellectual foundations of New Labour. Particularly after 2008 he clearly came to regret that and emphasise the importance of grappling with economic crisis and austerity.
Perhaps the wider point however was that there was far from always a clear link between Hobsbawm’s historical research, invariably excellent, and his political pronouncements, which were sometimes much more open to question. They were often one felt dictated by his personal history and background rather than by his historical researches, and why not?
However for that reason I often argued he would have been better to keep the two distinct and perhaps the same might be said about Richard Evans assessment of him. His biography of Hobsbawm, while not the last word, is an important contribution. His political views are another matter, not less valid but not necessarily linked either.
Would Hobsbawm have supported Corbyn? We cant know. Evans is right to underline that Hobsbawm would have wanted a Labour Government and Hobsbawm’s lengthy probing interview with Tony Benn published in Marxism Today suggests he would have been asking questions. Rightly so in my view whether I liked the questions or not, one thing a marxist historian should do is to raise awkward points and issues not just cheer
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