The first biography of one of the twentieth century's most respected and accomplished historians.

'This is an excellent book. Like Hobsbawm's own works, it should be read by anyone with a serious interest in history' Richard Vinen, Evening Standard


When Eric Hobsbawm died in 2012, he was the most famous historian in the world. His books were translated into more than fifty languages and renowned as much in Brazil and India as in Britain and the United States.

In A Life in History, Richard Evans tells the story of Hobsbawm as an historian, but also as a witness to history itself. Based on exclusive access to his papers, interviews with his contemporaries and archives from three continents, A Life in History is an extraordinary achievement from one of the leading historians in the world today: a unique study of a man and his era, and of an intellectual who changed the way history is written.

'The great accomplishment of Richard J Evans's brilliantly crafted Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History is how he takes us into the private, inner world of the master historian' Gavin Jacobson, New Statesman

Deeply researched and humane