But - I've never really understood the veneration of Hobsbawm. Say Christopher Hill or E.P. Thompson and anyone can identify their core contributions to history (the discipline, not the historical process). But Hobsbawm? I'll grant you he's prolific, but what has he written that's great or fundamental? "The Age of..." series - superficial and derivative. "Primitive Rebels" and "Bandits" - slight works that opened up interesting lines of inquiry, but those lines were pursued by others. His work on nationalism - a late entry that did nothing to carry the debate forward. "The Invention of Tradition" was a terrific book, but a scholarly reputation is hardly based on co-editing an important volume. So, Hobsbawm - is there any there there?
________________________________ From: Bhaskar Sunkara <bhaskar.sunkara at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 7:32 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] A profoundly glib review of Hobsbawm
Moynihan recently joined *Vice* as an editor, which says a lot about the content of that publication. Frequently reactionary, almost always sexist and inane.
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