The third book in Eric Hobsbawm's history of what he termed the "long 19th century" after The Age of Revolution and The Age of Capitalism.
My thoughts
Sadly, I have my second DNF book of 2012. This one is actually a good book, but there's just too much going on in my life and it's not the right time for me to read it. I need something that I can read without too much thought, something I can take in small sips of 15 or 20 minutes at a time.
I picked this book because I read The Age of Extremes, Hobsbawm's history of the 20th century, for a class in college and really enjoyed Hobsbawm's approach. So this one has been on my shelf for who knows how long.
The Age of Empire covers the time period from 1870 until World War I. I found the portions dealing with the cultural pressures on society, especially women's rights, the most interesting. The sections dealing with economics were more difficult for me to concentrate on and that's what led me to put the book aside for now. But in every aspect of the book, you can see the roots of our current world - politically, socially, economically.
A few days after I put this book down, I tuned in to NPR mid-segment and heard a man describing how he came to be a Marxist in Germany in the early 1930s and then remained affiliated with the Communist Party even after the Soviets brutally crushed the Hungarian uprising in 1956. I thought it sounded like Hobsbawm's story and it turned out it was. Sadly, though, NPR was airing his obituary.
Bottom line
It's dense, but it's well written.
Fine print
The Age of Empire: 1875-1914, by Eric Hobsbawm
Genre: non-fiction, history
Photo from Goodreads
I bought this book
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