Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion and Jazz - Hardcover

These 26 essays range over the history of working men and women between the late 18th century and the present day. They include Hobsbawm's pioneering studies in labour history and social protest - 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, the machine-breakers, revolution and sex, peasants and politics, the rules of violence, the common-sense of Tom Paine. There are more recent reflections: on the May Day holiday; the Vietnam War; socialism and the avantgarde; Mario Puzo, the Mafia and the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Guiliano; and the cultural consequences of Christopher Columbus. There are tributes to some of jazz's legendary figures - Count Basie, SidneyBechet and Dike Ellington - anf the tragic blues-singer Billie Holiday.

Born in Alexandria in 1917, Eric Hobsbawm was educated in Vienna, Berlin, London and Cambridge. A Fellow of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he taught for most of his career at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was Emeritus Professor of Economic and Social History. He is best known for his trilogy of studies on the long 19th century (The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848, The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 and The Age of Empire: 1875-1914). He died in London in October 2012 at the age of ninety-five.