British labor and social historian Hobsbawn collects 26 essays, 11 published between the middle 1950s and 1990s, and the others appearing here for the first time. The Radical Tradition section examines the working class and ideologies associated with its movements from the 18th to the 20th centuries, Country People considers traditional peasantries, Contemporary History explores situations that are conventionally described in terms of individual intentions but that are in fact much larger, and Jazz looks at one of the few developments in the major arts entirely rooted in the lives of poor people. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
