Hobsbawms

Hobsbawms refers to people bearing the surname Hobsbawm. The name is most closely associated with Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012), a British historian who played a central role in the development of modern social and economic history. His four-volume sequence The Age of Revolution (1789–1848), The Age of Capital (1848–1875), The Age of Empire (1875–1914), and The Age of Extremes (1914–1991) traces broad historical transformations across two centuries and is widely regarded as a landmark synthesis. Along with Terence Ranger, Hobsbawm co-authored The Invention of Tradition (1983), a foundational work in the study of how cultural practices are constructed.

Career and background: Born to Jewish parents in 1917, Hobsbawm pursued an extensive academic career in Britain. He taught at Birkbeck College, University of London, and established himself as a prominent public intellectual, engaging with debates on capitalism, nationalism, and historiography. His scholarship helped position world history and long-term social processes at the center of historical inquiry.

Legacy: Hobsbawm's work has influenced generations of historians and scholars beyond history, including sociology and anthropology, by emphasizing structural change and global interconnections. His approaches—especially the focus on long-term dynamics and the synthesis of macro-historical trends—received widespread acclaim, even as some critics questioned perceived political bias or the selection of sources. The term Hobsbawms, then, denotes the broader set of figures sharing the surname and, in particular, recognition of Eric Hobsbawm's methodological and thematic contributions to history.