Now in paperback, an engaging and eclectic collection of essays from "the best-known living historian in the world" (The Times, London). Uncommon People collects twenty-six essays by Eric Hobsbawm, "one of the truly great synthesizers of the last few centuries of European history" (Philadelphia Inquirer). It brings back into print his classic works on labor history, working people, and social protest, pairing them with more recent, previously unpublished pieces on everything from the villainy of Roy Cohn to the genius of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holliday. A true Renaissance man, Hobsbawm explores topics from Mario Puzo and the MaAOa to Tom Paine and the radical tradition. Highlighting Hobsbawm's passionate concern for the lives and struggles of ordinary men and women, Uncommon People offers both an exciting introduction for the uninitiated as well as a broad-ranging retrospective of the work of this "erudite and influential historian" (Los Angeles Times).
British labor and social historian Hobsbawn collects 26 essays, 11 published between the middle 1950s and 1990s, and the others appearing here for the first time. The Radical Tradition section examines the working class and ideologies associated with its movements from the 18th to the 20th centuries, Country People considers traditional peasantries, Contemporary History explores situations that are conventionally described in terms of individual intentions but that are in fact much larger, and Jazz looks at one of the few developments in the major arts entirely rooted in the lives of poor people. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
