Aug 21, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min · 27 segments
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was one of the foremost European intellectuals of the twentieth century. He published hundreds of articles on modern history and culture, and his books became canonical works…
Emile ChabalGuestRyan TrippHostI know that Eric Hasbaum was born in Alexandria in 1917, and then he moved to Vienna two years later.
And I understand this is a pretty standard question, but I thought it was good to start off.
What impact did the death of his parents have on a young Hasbaum as well as him moving around?
Well, the thing to know about Eric Hobsbawm is he really is a product of the kind of collapsing empires of the early 20th century in Europe.
And that's where he's born two years later after the end of the First World War.
Vienna, of course, had been the imperial capital of the Habsburg Empire and that empire collapsed in the First World War.
And so Holmstrom's childhood was really the childhood of a very bookish, very nerdish, geeky child.
And I suppose the first big watershed moment in his life was was the moment of first his father's unexpected death, and then his mother's death a few years later.
But it's quite difficult to understand that impact and see that impact beyond what one imagines was the trauma and the psychological challenge of that double death, which ultimately led to him being orphaned.
It's very striking looking at the way he described his parents and their deaths, both at the time or a few years later, once he'd moved to London in his mid-teens, and then much later in life.
I know that Eric Hasbaum was born in Alexandria in 1917, and then he moved to Vienna two years later.
And I understand this is a pretty standard question, but I thought it was good to start off.
What impact did the death of his parents have on a young Hasbaum as well as him moving around?
Well, the thing to know about Eric Hobsbawm is he really is a product of the kind of collapsing empires of the early 20th century in Europe.
And that's where he's born two years later after the end of the First World War.
Vienna, of course, had been the imperial capital of the Habsburg Empire and that empire collapsed in the First World War.
And so Holmstrom's childhood was really the childhood of a very bookish, very nerdish, geeky child.
And I suppose the first big watershed moment in his life was was the moment of first his father's unexpected death, and then his mother's death a few years later.
But it's quite difficult to understand that impact and see that impact beyond what one imagines was the trauma and the psychological challenge of that double death, which ultimately led to him being orphaned.
It's very striking looking at the way he described his parents and their deaths, both at the time or a few years later, once he'd moved to London in his mid-teens, and then much later in life.
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