Viva la Revolucion: Hobsbawm on Latin America

In his autobiography Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life, published in 2002 when he was eighty-five years old, the historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) wrote that Latin America was the only region of the world outside Europe which he felt he knew well and where he felt entirely at home. He claimed this was because it was the only part of the Third World whose two principal languages, Spanish and Portuguese, were within his reach. But he was also, of course, attracted by the potential for social revolution in Latin America. After the triumph of Fidel Castro in Cuba in January 1959, and even more after the defeat of the American attempt to overthrow him at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, 'there was not an intellectual in Europe or the USA', he wrote, 'who was not under the spell of Latin America, a continent apparently bubbling with the lava of social revolutions'. The Third World 'brought the hope of revolution back to the First in the 1960s'. The two great international inspirations were Cuba and Vietnam, 'triumphs not only of revolution, but of Davids against Goliaths, of the weak against the all-powerful'. Review Throughout, Hobsbawm writes with unrivalled clarity, making his historical arguments and political commentary compelling and urgent even at a distance of decades ( Guardian) Book Description Viva La Revolucion is Hobsbawm's magisterial work on Latin America, the fruit of forty years' writing about the continent. From the Inside Flap In his autobiography Interesting Times: A Twentieth Century Life, published in 2002 when he was eighty-five years old, the historian Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012) wrote that Latin America was the only region of the world outside Europe which he felt he knew well and where he felt entirely at home. He claimed this was because it was the only part of the Third World whose two principal languages, Spanish and Portuguese, were within his reach. But he was also, of course, attracted by the potential for social revolution in Latin America. After the triumph of Fidel Castro in Cuba in January 1959, and even more after the defeat of the American attempt to overthrow him at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, 'there was not an intellectual in Europe or the USA', he wrote, 'who was not under the spell of Latin America, a continent apparently bubbling with the lava of social revolutions'. The Third World 'brought the hope of revolution back to the First in the 1960s'. The two great international inspirations were Cuba and Vietnam, 'triumphs not only of revolution, but of Davids against Goliaths, of the weak against the all-powerful'. Viva La Revolucion is Hobsbawm's magisterial work on Latin America, the fruit of forty years' writing about the continent. From the Back Cover 'Arguably Britain's most respected historian of any kind, one of a tiny handful of historians of any era to enjoy genuine national and world renown . . . Both in his knowledge of detail and in his extraordinary powers of synthesis, he was unrivalled' Guardian 'One of the greatest British historians of his age . . . For sheer intellectual firepower and analytical skill, Hobsbawm remained unsurpassed' Daily Telegraph 'A magisterial historian of the modern age . . . Eric Hobsbawm pioneered the study of popular protest, riot and revolt, and his writings were as important to social scientists as to historians' The Times Author Bio Eric Hobsbawm was a Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Before retirement he taught at Birkbeck College, University of London, and after retirement at the New School for Social Research in New York. His previous books include The Age of Extremes, The Age of Revolution and The Age of Empire. He died at the age of ninety-five in October 2012 .