On the Edge of the New Century

A short, hard-hitting sequel to The Age of Extremes, by “the popular people’s historian who has influenced our understanding of the previous three centuries like no other” (The Boston Globe)

“A concise, honest, and cautious approach to the state of human affairs.” —Kirkus

On the Edge of the New Century is the sequel to Eric Hobsbawm’s The Age of Extremes, a book of serious and challenging historical analysis that became a worldwide bestseller, now in paperback. Hobsbawm’s latest book continues his “magisterial” (The New York Times Book Review) analysis of the twentieth century, and asks crucial questions about our inheritance from a century of conflict and its meaning for our future.

Looking back over the last decade, Hobsbawm finds the distinction between internal and international conflicts and between the state of war and the state of peace disappearing as the crisis of the multiethnic state deepens and nations emerge from colonialism and nuclear terror. He assesses the impact that a popular global culture has had on every aspect of life, from happiness and social hierarchy to nutrition and the environment.

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Praise

“Enthusiastically recommended. Hobsbawm speaks from a base of wisdom that easily draws attention.”
Library Journal
“Hobsbawm’s elegant analysis brings a century of incredible change into some semblance of frame and focus, even as it prods us to ask why we study the information we call history.”
Kirkus Reviews

Books by Eric Hobsbawm

On Empire
America, War, and Global Supremacy

Eric Hobsbawm

Uncommon People
Resistance, Rebellion, and Jazz

Eric Hobsbawm

On History

Eric Hobsbawm

Fractured Times
Culture and Society in the Twentieth Century

Eric Hobsbawm

Goodreads Reviews