Britain, empire, Europe: re-reading Eric Hobsbawm
Rueger, Jan (2013) Britain, empire, Europe: re-reading Eric Hobsbawm. Journal of Modern European History 11 (4), pp. 417-423. ISSN 1611-8944.
Abstract
How should we think of the relationship between Britain, its empire and European history? When re-reading Hobsbawm’s trilogy on the nineteenth century with this question in mind one is initially struck by a paradox: while originally designed as a history of Europe and appreciated as such by a vast audience of readers, there is, conceptually speaking, surprisingly little «Europe» in it. The book titles themselves suggest that Hobsbawm was hesitant about a rigidly European framework. In its early editions The Age of Revolution carried the subtitle Europe, 1789–1848. Later editions dropped the «Europe»; they were simply entitled The Age of Revolution, 1789– 1848. The other two volumes in the trilogy came without «Europe» in the title from the beginning: The Age of Capital, 1848–1875 and The Age of Empire, 1875–1914.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
Depositing User: | Sarah Hall |
Date Deposited: | 13 Jan 2014 16:54 |
Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:08 |
URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/8933 |
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