Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life

Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life is the autobiography of Eric Hobsbawm, a remarkable man who lived through some of the most trying and eventful times of the twentieth century.Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life is an ode to the life Eric Hobsbawm. He was born in Egypt in 1917, when the Russian revolution was taking place. He moved with his family to Vienna after two years and after that to Berlin. After the death of his parents and because Adolf Hitler came to power, Eric Hobsbawm moved to London with his foster parents and there he received a PhD in history from Cambridge University. Throughout his life he has been a witness to a number of wars, revolutions and counter revolutions. This book is a testament of the times he has lived through. Rather than getting bogged down by the various wars taking place around him, Eric Hobsbawm kept a note of all the important events he was witnessing throughout his life.This book is a non-biased point of view on and the author’s narrative of events which took place during his lifetime. He was a staunch communist and was part of the communist movement throughout his entire life. In Berlin, he was part of the Sozialistischer Schülerbund and, in London, he was part of the Communist Party Historians Group. After this party was disbanded, he became the president of the Socialist History Society till the end of his life. The book shows that, although he was a supporter of communism, he never let that blind him. He used to publicly denounce Stalin’s regime and was even in favour of the Prague spring.Interesting Times: A Twentieth-Century Life is a provides its readers with a look into the past and the events that have shaped the world that we currently lived in. The book was published Abacus in 2003. It is written in English and is available in paperback.