How much of the anger that we're seeing today do you think is rooted in people's ability to make ends meet, you know, about their access to these public services and the general anxiety over the future? Like, is it that France is in worse economic shape than its European contemporaries, or Are the French just more prone to revolt?

It's very hard to say.

The cost of living crisis across Europe, certainly since the war in Ukraine, is real.

And that has expressed itself rapidly.

especially in rising energy prices, which have a knock-on impact on transport and domestic heating, but also on the cost of almost everything that people buy because it ties into the overhead costs for businesses.

So I think those rises are real.

Inflation has been high almost everywhere in Europe.

But for you, what do you think has made protests such an enduring or consequential part of France's political life and culture?

I mean, why? Why was he a bestseller, do you think? That's a complicated

question to answer.

I mean, it's tempting to say that he sold many, many copies of his books because he was very good at what he did, which was write the history of particular historical epochs.

And that's clearly true if If anyone has read Eric Hobsbawm, they will know that his ability to capture the broad sweep of a historical moment is really impressive.

I mean, I'm a historian by training and by trade, and I try and do this every day with my students, and it's a real challenge.

So I have a lot of admiration for this.

But I think we also have to understand his success as part of what Sophie was talking about earlier on.

Emil, what do we need them for? What do we want them to do?

Which stood out, and what were the circumstances of him joining the Apostles? Um, and, uh, did the Annales School, uh, impact him?

Yeah, I mean, it's worth, uh, worth really kind of taking a moment to resituate Hobsbawm's arrival in the UK and then his, uh, his, uh, undergraduate studies at Cambridge within their wider context.

So, um, he leaves Berlin, uh, in 1934 and comes to London, where he is immediately put in school, uh, in a British school.

He was a British n- national.

His father was British.

Um, and he spoke English, so he, he wasn't coming as a, as a Central European exile, uh, of whom there were many, actually, in, in, um, in Britain at the time, uh, in the run-up to Second World War, and of course, during the Second World War as well.

Um, so he entered the British school system, um, at a point where he was, uh, very, very British, but had not really spent any, much time in Britain and had not really been fully acculturated as British.

Um, I don't mean to inordinately, uh, focus on Peru, but, uh, I think it, for me at least, it was important.

I just, maybe a brief rundown on, you know, total commitment, grounded pedagogy, the Marxist totality of history, and that web.

yeah absolutely well i yeah i i'd love to talk more about culture and jazz and and and uh and you know maybe that's that's something for another time because there's there's a lot that's really interesting that i make i make quite a lot of that in the book the whole chapter on on culture and trying to take uh hobson's theory of of culture and popular culture seriously um despite its limitations is i mean there's a really fascinating body of work but um But yeah, no, coming back to the idea of grounded pedagogy and the way that Hobsbawm wrote.

So this is really delving, I suppose, into... what I was talking about earlier, which is how did he package his ideas? And so how did he conceptualize writing large-scale history? Because that's what he does a lot of.

He writes a lot of large-scale history, so covering decades, sometimes centuries, often many, many countries, entire regions, sometimes the entire world.

And I think to understand this, you've got to go back to his intellectual and political training.

Um, and there were two crucial elements here first.

you've got to say something about the Annales school, which we mentioned earlier, but which we should come back to now as, as really the primary form of total history that was available to, um, people in the period of the 1950s, um, in, uh, in Europe at a time when Hobsbawm was beginning to write this kind of large scale history.

Why did his support for the reformist wing of the Labour Party become a source of scholarly accusations for complicity or engagement, I don't know, in the rise of new Labour, in turn associated with however you want to approach neoliberalism?

Within that milieu, please, that context, please briefly address that book sales table in your study and the expansion of global translations of its works.

Yeah, there is.

There's this table in the book where I give some indication of the book sales in a particular period.

And I suppose what I'm trying to do with that and with this discussion about book selling in general is to get us to think a little bit about the interface between ideas and the infrastructure of ideas.

In other words, you can have an idea, but how are you going to get that idea out into the world? Um, uh, you know, in, in, in, in, in the 21st century with my podcast, you might go on YouTube by going tick tock.

We might write, uh, we probably do that for an online platform.

Um, and, and you hope that something's going to get picked up.

I just, maybe a brief rundown on, you know, total commitment, grounded pedagogy, the Marxist totality of history, and that web.

the world?

You know, in the 21st century, we might podcast, we might go on YouTube, we might go on TikTok, we might write, we'd probably do that for an online platform.

And you hope that something's going to get picked up, you hope that something's going to go viral.

And in a sense, I think, Hobsbawm, he's very attuned to that dimension of the marketplace of ideas, as it were.

He does go viral, to use a very 21st century word, which I don't think he would have really recognized.

And he does that because he's really committed to writing for a larger audience.

I mentioned earlier about the generalist teaching he's doing during the war and after the war, and even when he starts his first job at Birkbeck, the University of London, where he's teaching mature students, adult students who are not traditional university students.

Why did his support for the reformist wing of the Labour Party become a source of scholarly accusations for complicity or engagement, I don't know, in the rise of new Labour, in turn associated with however you want to approach neoliberalism?

I just, maybe a brief rundown on, you know, total commitment, grounded pedagogy, the Marxist totality of history, and that web.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'd love to talk more about culture and jazz and maybe that's something for another time because there's a lot that's really interesting that I make.

I make quite a lot of that in the book, the whole chapter on culture and trying to take Hobsbawm's theory of culture and popular culture seriously.

despite its limitations.

I mean, there's a really fascinating body of work.

But yeah, coming back to the idea of grounded pedagogy and the way that Hobsbawm wrote.

Why did his support for the reformist wing of the Labour Party become a source of scholarly accusations for complicity or engagement, I don't know, in the rise of new Labour, in turn associated with however you want to approach neoliberalism?

Which stood out, and what were the circumstances of him joining the Apostles? Um, and, uh, did the Annales School, uh, impact him?

Yeah, I mean, it's worth, uh, worth really kind of taking a moment to resituate Hobsbawm's arrival in the UK and then his, uh, his, uh, undergraduate studies at Cambridge within their wider context.

So, um, he leaves Berlin, uh, in 1934 and comes to London, where he is immediately put in school, uh, in a British school.

He was a British n- national.

His father was British.

Um, and he spoke English, so he, he wasn't coming as a, as a Central European exile, uh, of whom there were many actually in, in, um, in Britain at the time, uh, in the run-up to Second World War, and of course, during the Second World War as well.

Um, so he entered the British school system, um, at a point where he was, uh, very, very British, but had not really spent any, much time in Britain and had not really been fully acculturated as British.

Um, I don't mean to inordinately, uh, focus on Peru, but, uh, I think it, for me at least, it was important.

I just, maybe a brief rundown on, you know, total commitment, grounded pedagogy, the Marxist totality of history, and that web.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'd love to talk more about culture and jazz and maybe that's something for another time because there's a lot that's really interesting that I make.

I make quite a lot of that in the book, the whole chapter on culture and trying to take Hobsbawm's theory of culture and popular culture seriously.

despite its limitations.

I mean, there's a really fascinating body of work.

But yeah, coming back to the idea of grounded pedagogy and the way that Hobsbawm wrote.

Why did his support for the reformist wing of the Labour Party become a source of scholarly accusations for complicity or engagement, I don't know, in the rise of new Labour, in turn associated with however you want to approach neoliberalism?

Which stood out, and what were the circumstances of him joining the Apostles? Um, and, uh, did the Annales School, uh, impact him?

Yeah, I mean, it's worth, uh, worth really kind of taking a moment to resituate Hobsbawm's arrival in the UK and then his, uh, his, uh, undergraduate studies at Cambridge within their wider context.

So, um, he leaves Berlin, uh, in 1934 and comes to London, where he is immediately put in school, uh, in a British school.

He was a British n- national.

His father was British.

Um, and he spoke English, so he, he wasn't coming as a, as a Central European exile, uh, of whom there were many actually in, in, um, in Britain at the time, uh, in the run-up to Second World War, and of course, during the Second World War as well.

Um, so he entered the British school system, um, at a point where he was, uh, very, very British, but had not really spent any much time in Britain and had not really been fully acculturated as British.

Um, I don't mean to inordinately, uh, focus on Peru, but, uh, I think it, for me at least, it was important.