Hobsbawm

"He has addressed the big, global questions and has done so in an accessible style. His trilogy on the "long 19th century" still provides among the most rewarding accounts of the French revolution, the industrial revolution, and the function of empire. It was an achievement only matched by The Age of Extremes, his chronicle of the "short 20th century", which recounted the human costs of the ideological struggle between fascism and communism. But Hobsbawm has also pioneered research into the origins of banditry and protest, the social history of jazz, geopolitics and the invention of national tradition (a plague he thinks has made "the defence of history by its professionals more urgent in politics than ever"). It is this productivity, catholic intellectualism and populist verve that have earned him his gongs and doctorates. Internationally, he is admired as a scholar and polemicist. But not, it seems, to the angry philistines of the Mail who can't move beyond their revulsion at Hobsbawm's combination of royal approbation, professional success and ideological conviction. Perhaps they should read one of his books." (thanks Asa)