The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1962; vuoden 1999 painos)

Muy informativo como se podria esperar y nada pesado aunque a veces se hace un poco repetitivo. En el capitulo sobre como cambio la ciencia en este periodo repite multiples veces un meta-argumento sobre la relacion entre eventos historicos y cientificos.

Un par de defectos son que:
En ningun momento hay una historia lineal en el tiempo si no que trata de cada tema centrandose en el tema en todo el periodo del tiempo saltando de arriba a abajo. Por ejemplo explica sobre la revolucion industrial, quiza hablando de 1792 que afectara en 1843 aunque ya se veia venir en 1830 por cierto que en 1770...

Da por hecho mucho conocimiento o que el lector va a estar leyendo alguna otra referencia junto con el libro (yo usaba la wikipedia) porque no es raro que deje caer hechos de los que no ha hablado todavia. De hecho en ningun momento explica los hechos principales del periodo. Si no conoces ya mas o menos la historia a grandes rasgos del periodo es facil perderse.
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NG-5

Between 1789 and 1848 the world was transformed both by the French Revolution and also by the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This 'Dual Revolution' created the modern world as we know it.

Eric Hobsbawm traces with brilliant analytical clarity the transformation brought about in every sphere of European life by the Dual Revolution - in the conduct of war and diplomacy; in new industrial areas and on the land; among peasantry, bourgeoisie and aristocracy; in methods of government and of revolution; in science, philosophy and religion; in literature and the arts. But above all he sees this as the period when industrial capitalism established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for a century.

Eric Hobsbawm's enthralling and original account is an impassioned but objective history of the most significant sixty years in the history of Europe. ( )

CX 21

An impressive synthesis of this era of European social history. The outlook is Marxist in that Hobsbawm is well aware that the dual revolutions created both winners and losers and that they could be best determined by class, but he never lets ideology cloud his thinking. His analysis is more descriptive than polemical. Hobsbawm is a fine prose stylist with a gift for the apt metaphor, but I found the book dense and difficult, primarily because the author assumes much foreknowledge on the part of the reader (this shouldn't be anyone's first history of the era). Even so, the insight and sweeping vision reward persistence.

I was fortunate enough to find the 2005 Folio Society edition, a boxed set of all four of Hobsbawm's "Ages", in a local used bookstore. It is a pleasure to read such a well-made book. The paper is opaque and white, the type is clear, and the illustrations are excellent. Too bad that book manufacture of this caliber is such a rarity. ( )