Echoes of the Marseillaise - by Eric Hobsbawm (Paperback)

About the Book

E.J. Hobsbawm's classic historiographic study explores the perception of the French Revolution over the past two centuries. He considers how and why different generations and political factions have recounted it in radically different ways: as proletarian or as bourgeois, as ephemeral or as world-changing, as enlightened progress or as violent anarchy.

Book Synopsis

What was the French Revolution? Was it the triumph of Enlightenment humanist principles, or a violent reign of terror? Did it empower the common man, or just the bourgeoisie? And was it a turning point in world history, or a mere anomaly?

E.J. Hobsbawm's classic historiographic study--written at the very moment when a new set of revolutions swept through the Eastern Bloc and brought down the Iron Curtain--explores how the French Revolution was perceived over the following two centuries. He traces how the French Revolution became integral to nineteenth-century political discourse, when everyone from bourgeois liberals to radical socialists cited these historical events, even as they disagreed on what their meaning. And he considers why references to the French Revolution continued to inflame passions into the twentieth century, as a rhetorical touchstone for communist revolutionaries and as a boogeyman for social conservatives.

Echoes of the Marseillaise is a stimulating examination of how the same events have been reimagined by different generations and factions to serve various political agendas. It will give readers a new appreciation for how the French Revolution not only made history, but also shaped our fundamental notions about history itself.

Review Quotes

"Eric Hobsbawm is one of the few genuinely great historians of our century."-- "The New Republic"

"Hobsbawm's brilliant and engaging polemic succeeds both in highlighting what was revolutionary about the French Revolution and showing how people have argued angrily about it ever since."--Peter McPhee "author of Liberty or Death: The French Revolution"

"It is good to rub the revisionist sand from one's eyes and read: 'The absurdity of the assumption that the French Revolution is simply a sort of stumble on the long, slow march of eternal France, is patent.' Eric Hobsbawm is right, of course."--Gwynne Lewis "author of The French Revolution and Life in Revolutionary France"

"Much of his argument is addressed to historians of the Left, but his general conclusions will interest all historians of the modern world."--Nancy C. Cridland "author of Books in American History: A Basic List for High Schools"

"Nobody is better qualified to explore such a theme, for the range and penetration of Hobsbawm's writings on modern European history have long been the envy and admiration of other scholars."--William Doyle "author of The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction"

"This is a vigorous, refreshing, and learned brief on behalf of a venerable historiographical tradition. It reminds us of the obvious but often overlooked truth: that there are no definitive interpretations, certainly not of an event so primal and transcendent as the French Revolution."--David P. Jordan "author of The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre"

About the Author

ERIC JOHN ERNEST HOBSBAWM, CH FRSL FBA (1917-2012) was emeritus professor of history at Birbeck College, University of London, emeritus university professor of politics and society at the New School for Social Research, and a fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He authored more than twenty books, including the collection The Invention of Tradition and the tetralogy The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes.