It was interesting to read the different reactions to the death of Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm last week.
Reaching the grand old age of 95, he was quite a piece of history himself.
Although he reached world-renown for his Age Of... trilogy which chronicled 20th century Europe, he drew vehement criticism from many for remaining a supporter of communism long after the atrocities of the Soviet system had been exposed.
Unlike many of the obits, economic historian Roderick Floud's piece takes an objective historical view, using evidence from Hobsbawm's autobiography 'Interesting Times' published in 2003.
Floud argues that Hobsbawm's commitment to communism was forged in the very age of extremes that he would later historicize. Born in Egypt to Jewish parents he later moved to Vienna and then Berlin with his family, before fleeing to London. He joined the Communists in Berlin in 1932.
Floud quotes Hobsbawm's autobiography: "We were not liberals. Liberalism was what had failed. In the total war we were engaged in, one did not ask oneself whether there should be a limit to the sacrifices imposed on others any more than on ourselves. Since we were not in power, or likely to be, what we expected was to be prisoners rather than jailers."
This die-hard commitment to a utopian ideal, brought with it comradeship and meaning to a world descending into Nazism and war. It was not an ideal Hobsbawm was ever willing to turn his back on. Although the quote seems to resonate with the oppositional activism of today's occupy activists and anti-austerity protesters, a unifying ideology of sacrifice is strikingly absent from this social movement. The 'age of ideology' may well and truly be over.
Most activists today just want a piece of the pie, and they want it now! In this climate of selfish griping, we would do well to re-read Hobsbawm's work on the hardworking lives of ordinary men and women who somehow rode the tide of industrialisation with their principles and pride intact.
