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The Age of Capital

1848-1875

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The Age of Capital

By: Eric Hobsbawm
Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
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About this listen

The first and best major treatment of the crucial years 1848-1875 - a penetrating analysis of the rise of capitalism throughout the world.

In the 1860s a new word entered the economic and political vocabulary of the world: 'capitalism'. The global triumph of capitalism is the major theme of history in the decades after 1848. It was the triumph of a society which believed that economic growth rests on competitive private enterprise, on success in buying everything in the cheapest market (including labour) and selling it in the dearest. An economy so based, and therefore nestling naturally on the sound foundations of a bourgeoisie composed of those whose energy, merit and intelligence had raised to their position and kept there, would - it was believed - create a world not only of suitably distributed material plenty but of ever-growing enlightenment, reason and human opportunity, an advance of the sciences and the arts: in brief, a world of continuous and accelerating material and moral progress.

©1975 Eric Hobsbawm (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK 19th Century Economic History Economics Europe Modern World Capitalism Socialism Latin America Imperialism Africa Middle Ages Social justice Self-Determination War Soviet Union Liberalism United Kingdom Economic disparity Taxation China Middle East Economic Inequality Interwar Period
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I enjoyed this presentation, a very good listen to what could have been a pretty dry book, so really well done.

informative and we'll presented

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Marx, the Paris commune, 1848, Dickens, Courbet, etc. what's not to like?
the 1st stirring of working class struggle in the Paris commune and an excellent discussion of the bourgeois art of the period make this a pleasure

Marx, the Paris commune, 1848, Dickens, Courbet

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Hobsbawm wrote with such excellent clarity and the way he organises his extraordinary depth of knowledge and insight is nothing short of astounding. Only Tony Judt matches him. Ihave listened to this book many times because it increases your appreciation of the way he synthesised so much material each time you hear it.

Far better than most histories on Audible

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