The classic sociology survey.
Little attention has been paid to modern movements of social protest which fall outside the classic patterns of labor or socialist agitation, and even less to those whose political coloring is not modernist or progressive but conservative, or reactionary or, at any rate, rather inarticulate.
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About the Author
A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Eric Hobsbawm is the author of more than twenty books of history, including The Age of Revolution and The Age of Extremes. He lives in London.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The recently deceased British historian E.J. Hobsbawn, notwithstanding his unrepentant Stalinism to the end, wrote many interesting historical studies in his very long career. The book under review, Primitive Rebels, was an early effort to trace the sociological roots of rebellion in the period of the rise of capitalism. We all know that the development of the capitalist mode of production as it started in Europe was both a long and uneven process. The way various sections of the poor in European society, mainly rural and small town workers, responded and adjusted to its demands is the core of this study. Not all resistance movements of the time led naturally to the three great political movements that defined the plebian respond to early capitalism-socialism, communism and anarchism- but those are the ones that drew masses of people around their programs and this is the focus of this work.
Professor Hobsbawn divided his study into two basic parts. The agrarian response, particularly in heavily agrarian Southern Europe, and the urban response, particularly in the small towns of Northern Europe, where capitalist development gained a huge foothold. Although there are some similarities in the response of both components local conditions such as tradition, geography and custom played a key role in whether the response became an organized one or faded in the onslaught. To that end he touches upon the history of social banditry and millennialism in the agrarian milieu and the strong pull of anarchism especially in Spain on the other. His case study on peasant anarchism in the period of the Spanish Civil War is worth the attention of Marxists in order to buttress the case for why anarchism's political response (or, better, non-political response) was totally inadequate in the face of the necessity of taking state power in order to defeat Franco.
The strongest part of the book is in his study of the urban plebians, their rituals and their revolutionary organizations. Here the theories and practice of the great 19th century revolutionary Louis Blanqui and his followers draws Hobsbawn's interest. Even stronger is his study of the relationship between religion, mainly of the non-conforming sort, and the development of the organized labor movement in Britain. This work goes a long way to explaining why the British labor movement was stalled, and still is stalled, in its tracks. In the end, however, the great lesson to be drawn from this work concerns today. I would ask where are the pockets of resistance to late capitalism comparable to those that emerged under early capitalism and how will those rebels response to the effects of `globalization' of the capitalist mode of production. We await our chronicler of that subject.
Professor Hobsbawn divided his study into two basic parts. The agrarian response, particularly in heavily agrarian Southern Europe, and the urban response, particularly in the small towns of Northern Europe, where capitalist development gained a huge foothold. Although there are some similarities in the response of both components local conditions such as tradition, geography and custom played a key role in whether the response became an organized one or faded in the onslaught. To that end he touches upon the history of social banditry and millennialism in the agrarian milieu and the strong pull of anarchism especially in Spain on the other. His case study on peasant anarchism in the period of the Spanish Civil War is worth the attention of Marxists in order to buttress the case for why anarchism's political response (or, better, non-political response) was totally inadequate in the face of the necessity of taking state power in order to defeat Franco.
The strongest part of the book is in his study of the urban plebians, their rituals and their revolutionary organizations. Here the theories and practice of the great 19th century revolutionary Louis Blanqui and his followers draws Hobsbawn's interest. Even stronger is his study of the relationship between religion, mainly of the non-conforming sort, and the development of the organized labor movement in Britain. This work goes a long way to explaining why the British labor movement was stalled, and still is stalled, in its tracks. In the end, however, the great lesson to be drawn from this work concerns today. I would ask where are the pockets of resistance to late capitalism comparable to those that emerged under early capitalism and how will those rebels response to the effects of `globalization' of the capitalist mode of production. We await our chronicler of that subject.
5 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It provides a new perspective toward the understanding of dissent that is contrapuntal to mainstream discourse that until then either demonized or pathologised dissent.
Its width and scope such as comes only from historical analysis infuses new ideas into the analysis of dissent always a quest for freedom.
It draws away the analysis from revolutions that above all else is celebratory of ideology to forms of dissent that are as much as liberating, if not manifesting a deeper consciousness of the dissent-freedom nexus that underlies all revolutions.
0 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By sunshinekt
Format:Paperback
I was required to read this as part of a non-western intensive writing course in college and it was the hardest book to get through. I am a Biology major so this is out of my realm of comfort and maybe that is why I did not enjoy it as much as the other reviewers. I found an arrogance in the style of Hobsbawm's writing which really bothered me. Overall, my favorite part of this book was the part where I put it down.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 16
books:
See all 16 books this book cites
- Rebellion in the Backlands (Os Sertoes ) by Euclides da Cunha in Front Matter, and page 63
- Blake, The Poems and Letters of William (Poets) by William Blake on page 60
- The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War by Gerald Brenan on page 74
- Old Calabria (Marlboro Travel) by Norman Douglas on page 21
- Phoenix: Garibaldi and the Thousand: May, 1860 by G. M. Trevelyan on page 102
See all 16 books this book cites
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