Born OTD in 1917, British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism & nationalism, Eric Hobsbawm. This collection of 26 essays range over the history of working men & women between the late 18th century & the present day, and brings back into print a selection of this celebrated historian’s pioneering studies into labour history, together with more recent reflections previously unpublished in book form. Hobsbawm’s penetrating essays on labour history & social protest opened up a new field of study & set standards of wide-ranging, evocative, incisive analysis.

Essays in this collection include the formation of the British working class; labour custom and traditions; the political radicalism of 19th century shoemakers; male and female images in revolutionary movements; revolution and sex; peasants and politics; and the common-sense of Tom Paine.

More recent essays include meditations on the May Day holiday; the Vietnam War; socialism and the avantgarde; Mario Puzo, the Mafia and the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano; and the cultural consequences of Christopher Columbus. Throughout these essays runs a passionate concern for the lives and struggles of ordinary men and women – uncommon people, all of them. Available in store and online.