You will probably remember from an earlier post that Eric Hobsbawn is a British Marxist historian, most famous for his trilogy of books on the nineteenth century – The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital and The Age of Empire.
You will certainly remember from your studies of Italian Unification, that 1848 was the year that revolutions swept Europe. Now in his 90s, here Hobsbawm reflects upon 2011 in an interview with Radio 4. He states “It was an enormous joy to discover once again that it’s possible for people to get down in the streets, to demonstrate, to overthrow governments,” and even compares the Arab Spring to the events of 1848.
See how far you agree with him…
