Eric Hobsbawm, 95, honored as one of Britain's most distinguished historians despite retaining an allegiance to the Communist Party that lasted long after many had left in disgust, died Monday at a London hospital after a long battle with leukemia.
He was revered for his ability to make history come alive, using his socialist perspective to tell stories from the people's point of view.
His reading of Karl Marx and his experience living in Germany in the early 1930s formed his views. He joined the Communist Party in England in 1936 and stayed a member long after Soviet military force crushed the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and the liberal reforms of the Prague Spring in 1968, although he publicly opposed both interventions.
