Was Eric Hobsbawm right?

In this video I discuss a line of argument presented by Eric Hobsbawm in his work 'Age of Revolution' about the significance of the Industrial Revolution.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Here is the link to the BBC In Our Time episode about the Industrial Revolution;

#history

[WobbliesIWW]

Yes, I believe he is clearly correct.

[danielepinsuti]

reading the short century (the age of extremes) right now.
I haven' t read the age of revolutions, but i couldn' t agree more with that take. Even tho it' s a XIX century event, the consequences of the industrial revolution didn' t affect the lives of most of the common people, except for the ones living in the cities, for the first decades, even here in europe. But when they manifested it was the biggest revolution of all times. My grandfathers, from the italian countryside, could testify the massive changes their lives went through the 1960's.

Hobsbawn really is completely right comparing that to the adoption of agricolture: people for the last 10000 years have been changing rulers, countries, political systems, cultures, believes and religions, but they basically lived the same way.
Then the industrial revolution happened.

Hobsbawm, as a marxist, probably enlights these changes because they affect the lifestyle of individuals, rather then the destiny of a country or of a political, cultural or religious system. In that he is profoundly right, because those are the changes the antropologists of a distant future (if they will ever be) will first and surely notice.

[jasonsadler]

I think I'll find myself a copy of The Age of Revolution. Off the top of my head, it seems like it would be hard to argue against the collective changes of the Industrial Revolution having caused the most significant changes to the most human lives in the shortest period since humanity collectively figured out the riddle of calories. That's one hell of a convoluted run-on sentence.

I've subscribed and hope a little engagement will help the burning eye of the algorithm notice you.

[AnthonyBrown]

I studied Social Economic History for A level, focused on Britain . We had to read The Making of the English Working Classes . I don't know if I still have it . Seemed to me a good read ; probably I would say I was /am a Labour voter so am more left than right by inclination

[kylewalker]

Depends on what is meant by 'the industrial revolution'. If we're simply talking about the development of industry and mass comodeties as 'the industrial revolution' then we must consider colonialism as the foundation of the industrial revolution.

The fortunes of European and the American empires were built on both slavery and colonisation.

Therefore, there's a good argument that colonialism is more important as it gave way to industrialisation.

I think however the Enlightenmnet is the most significant as its the ideology that underpinned both colonialism and the industrial revolution (these two coincided) the ideals of rationalism, science and progress brought with it ideals of supremecy and domination which has given way to more acrocities than anyone could have imagined.

[mikeb]

Most important was the Columbian Exchange and the Globalization that came from it.

[tahaoz]

Eric Hobsbawm makes very interesting arguments and surely enriches one's perspective.
But when I make Thomas Sowell vs Eric Hobsbawm, I think TS's perspective has more merits.

[AK-rurs]

I viewed your quotes as a way of relating to modernity more broadly. (The annihilation of social moores and bonds and ontic uprootedness of the peasants from the country). I don't know about the industrial revolution being the most important event? One could say the end of the bronze age in the near east and the subsequent emergence of private property (the canonic basis of western civilisation) maybe the most important? But this may focus on the West too much.

I did find the Age of Revolution, my first Hobsbawm book to be a bit of a dry read though. Are the other book similar?

[eggnog]

A very interesting video. I have always found the work of Hobsbawm to be intersting and his Marxist perspective is very illuminating.

In addition to this, have you every encountered the work of A.J.P Taylor? If so, how do you view his contributions to history?

[Gorboduc]

Hobsbawm is echoing another Marxist-influenced thinker, the archeologist V. Gordon Childe, who coined the terms Agricultural Revolution and Urban Revolution as kind of retcon or prequel to the Industrial one.

[personalsigh]

The industrial revolution has nothing on the information revolution

[protomanji]

The most important event in world history is the prophetic mission of prophet Mohamed peace and blessings be upon him.