Also by E. J. Hobsbawm: E. J. Hobsbawm “TE AGE OF REVOLUTION 179-188 “tar or txts THE AGE OF CAPITAL 1848-1875Fist published in Great Britain by ‘Weidenfl and Nenson La 1973 ist pled by Abacus 1977 Reprinted 19H, 1984, 985,198, 1989, 1981, 192, 1985 (ec) CCopyriht © FJ. Hobsbawen 1975 All ight reseed ‘No pur ft pubeation maybe reproduced, stored ina rerierl sytem of anemia orm or by any means, tout the pie permit a wetng ofthe publisher, nor be there ciated in ny form of binding or cover oe tha hatin which i publabed a ‘withoat x smiar condition ecteding hi ‘condition being impos onthe subsequent purchaser, Protein England by Clas Lid Stes ple ISBN 0 349 10480 8 Abus ‘ADiviion of Lite, rowa and Company (UK) ‘reenham House Tancater Place London WC2E TEN Contents Mstrations Preface Introduction ‘PART ONE: REVOLUTIONARY FRELUDE 1 ‘The Springtime of Peoples’ ‘PART-TWO: DEVELOPMENTS ‘The Great Boom ‘The World Untied Conflicts and War Building Nations ‘The Forces of Democracy Losers Winners ‘Changing Society PART THREE: RESULTS 10 The Land 11 Men Moving 12 City, Industry, the Working Class 13 The Bourgeois World 14 Science, Religion, Ideology 1S. The Ars 16 Conclusion Tables Maps Notes Farther Reading Index“To Marlene, Andrew and Julia 10 n B “ 15 16 List of Illustrations “The British Beehive by Cruickshank (photo: Radio Times Holton Picture Library) Foremen at the Intemational Exhibition, 186 (photo Victoria and Albert Museum) "Mr Ashton’s ingenious steam wineh (photo: ‘Albert Maseum) Poster for Johann Straus" ‘Demolition Poa’ (Strauss Collection; photo: Robert Rogers) Building the London underground railway, engraving (photo: ‘Mary Evans Picture Litrary) Gustave Doré, er London by Rail (photo: Mansell Coletion) “Manchester fom Blacktiars Bridge, 1859 (photo: George Grundy, “Manchester Public Libraries) Paris, Boulevard Sebastopol (photo: Radio Times Hulton Picture Libeary) Paris, Boulevard des Italien, 1864 (photo: Radio Times Hilton Picture Library) “Carving the Join’, stereoscopic photograph, c, 1860 (photo: ‘Victoria and Albert Museum) Room in Lincoln Court, ilustration in the Mutated Times, 1861 (photo: Weidenfeld and Nicolson archives) Paris salon, 1867 (photo: Roger-Viole) ‘Mr Willams’ Academy, ¢, 1865 (photo: Lewisham Local History Library) Eyre Crowe, The Dinner Hour, Wigan (City Art Gallery, ‘Manchestet) Fore Street, Lambeth York Whar, c, 1860 (photo: Vitoria and Albert Maseum) ith ofcer ia Indi, Picture Librany) 'W. W, Hooper, ‘The Last ofthe Herd’, , 1877 (photo: Royal ‘Geographical Society) etoria and 1870 (photo: Radio Times Hultona cr Emigrants at Cork bound for America, 1851, engraving (photo: Radio Times Hulton Piture Library) Settle’s cabin inthe Rio dela Mancis (photo: Radio Times Hulton Picture Library) Indian cool labour lay [Nicolson archives) Devil's Gate Bridge, Union Pai Railroad (photo: Radio Times Hulton Picture Library) ‘Slave auction in Virginia c, 1860, print (photo: Mansell Collection) Henry Morton Staley arrives in an African village, from his own sketch (photo: Radio Times Hulton Picture Library) Grand Barricade du Chiteau d'Eau, 1848 (Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; photo: Roge-Viole) Storming the Barricades, Paris 1871 (photo: Faitions Robert Lafont) Iron and Stel Works, Barrow (photo: Weidenfld and Nicolson archives) Emblem of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (photo: \Weideneld and Nicolson archives) ‘Daily Telegraph's printing machine (photo: Mansell Colleton) ‘The American Civil War, photography by Wiliam Brady (phot “Mansell Collection) rallway (photo: Weldenfeld and 30 Attack on Black Kettk’s Village, print from Harper's Weekly, 1868, 3 (photo: The Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka) “The Homeless Poor’, Paoch cartoon, 1859 (photo: Weideneld and [Nicolson archives) MAPS “The World in 1847 "The World in c.1880, 1847: Slavery and Seefdom inthe Western World 1880; Slavery and Serfdom in the Western World ‘A World on the Move ‘Wester Culture in 1847-1875: Opera Preface ‘Though this book is intended to stand on itt own, it happens to be the riddle volume of a series of three, which will atempt to survey the history of the modzen world fom the French Revolution to the Fist World War, of which the fist has Tong been available a8 The Age of ‘Revolution, 1789-1848, and the ast iss to be written. Consequently the book is likely to be read by some who know the earlier volume as well as by others who do not. To the former I apologize for including, bere and there, material already familar to them, in order to provide the necessary ‘background for the later. Similarly Ihave trie bel, particularly in the Conclusion, to provide afew pointers tothe future, [have naturally tried to keep material which duplicates The Age of Revolution to the minimum, and tomake it tolerable by distributing it throughout the text. But the book can be read independently, 0 long as readers bear in ind that it deals ‘ot with a self-contained period which can be tiily separated from what ‘went on before and came after, History is not like that. A allevensit ought to be comprehensible to any reader witha modicum ‘of general education, fr its deliberately addressed t the non-expert. If historians are to justify the resouress society devotes to their subject, modest though these are, they should not write exclusively for other historians. Sul, an elementary acquaintance with European history wll be fan advantage, [suppose readers could at « pinch, manage without any previous knowledge ofthe fal ofthe Bastile or the Napoleon Wars, but such knowledge will help. “The period with which thie book deals fs comparatively shor, but its eographical sope is wide. To write about the world fom 1789 to 1848 in terms of Europe ~ indeed almost in terms of Britain and France ~ i not unrealistic. However, since the major theme of the quarter-century there- after is the extension of the capitalist economy to the entre worl, and hence the impossibility of any longer writing 2 purely European history, i would be absurd to write about it without paying substantial attention to other continents. Have T nevertheless written it in too Eurocentric a ‘manner? Possibly. Inevitably a European historian not only knows much ‘more about his own continent than about others, but cannot help seeing the global landscape which surrounds him fron his particule vantage point. Inevitably an American historian, sy, will e the same landscape 9somewhat differently. Nevertheless, in the mid-nineteenth century the history ofthe development of world capitalism was sill ented in Europe. For instance, though the USA was already emerging as what waseventvally tobe the greatest industria economy in the worl, it was as yet somewhat ‘marginal and self-contained, Nor, indeed, was tan unusually large society in 1870 its population was not much larger than Britain's, about the same size as that of France, and litle less than that of what was about 10 be the German Empire. 'My treatment i divided into three parts. The 1848 revolutions form & prelude to a section on the main developments of the period. These 1 ‘iscuss in both a continental and, where necessary, global perspective, rather than asa series of selFoatained “national” histories, though in the fo chapters on the non-European world it would be both impracticable and absurd not to deal specifically wit several important areas and coun- tes, notably the USA and Japan, China and India. The chapter are divided by themes, rather than chronologically, though the main sub- periods should be clearly discernible. These are the quiet but expansionist 1850s, the more turbulent 1860s, the boom and slump of the 1870s. The third part consists of a series of cross-sections through the economy, society and culture ofthe third quarter ofthe nineteenth century. ‘My object has not been so much fo summarise known facts, or even to show what happened and when, but rather to draw facts together into a fener historical synthesis, to "make sense of" the third quarer of the ‘inetenth century, and to trace the root af the present world back to that ‘eri, insofar a ite reasonable to do so. But it is also to bring out the ‘extraordinary character of a period which really has no parle! in history, “and whose very unigueness makes it strange and remote, Whether The Age ‘of Capital succeeds in ‘making sense’ and bringing to life this period, must belt to readers to judge. Whether its interpretations are valid expecially ‘hea they dsagre with more accepted ones, must be let to the discussion ‘of my fellow-historans, who evidently donot al agree with me. Tress the temptation of the writer whose work has been widely and passionately reviewed, in terms ranging from enthusiasm to irritation, (0 take ise ‘with the reviewers, though I ave ried in thi edition to eliminate several Imisprins and some plain mistakes to which some of them have drawn my attention, 10 straighten out a few syntactical confusions which have spparenty led to misunderstanding, end t0 take account, atleast in my formulation, of some exiticsms which seem to me to be just. The text, ‘remain substantially as before, ‘Nevertheless, I should like to remove one misunderstanding which appears (0 exist, especially among reviewers whose natural sympathies ae 10 as much with bourgeois solety as mine are evidently not. Since iti the duty ofthe historian to let the reader make allowances for his bias, I wrote (see Introduction p. 17):"The author ofthis book cannot conceal a certain distaste, perhaps a certain contempt, forthe age with which it deals though ‘one mitigated by admiration for its titanic material achievements and by the effort to understand even what he does nt like" This has been read bY some asa declaration of intent to be unfait to the Victorian bourgeoisie and the age ofits triumph Since some people are evidently unable to read ‘what ison the page, as distinct fom what they thnk must be there, T would Tike to say clearly that this snot so. In fact, as atleast one reviewer has correctly recognised, bourgeois triumph i not merely the organising prin ciple of the present volume, bu “it i the bourgeoisie who receive much the ‘most sympathetic treatment in the book. For good or il it was their age, and Thave tied to preset it a such, even atthe cost of ~ a least inthis ‘bret period ~ seeing other clases not so much in thelr own Fight, 3, relation to i. cannot claim tobe expert onal but tny pat ofthe immense subject ‘matter ofthis book, and have had to rely almost entirely on second- or ven thirdshand information. But this is unavoidable, An enormous amount has already been written about te nineteenth century, and every year adds tothe height and bulk ofthe mountain ranges which darken the historical sky. As the range of historical interests widens to nclode pract- cally every aspect of life in which we ofthe late twentieth century take an interes, the quantity of information which must be absorbed i far 20 ‘teat for even the most erudite and encyclopedic scholar. Even where he ‘shes aware of tit mus often, inthe context ofa wide-angingsyntbesis, be reduced toa paragraph of two, & ine, a pasing mention or a mere ‘nuance of treatment, or omitted with regret. And one must necessarily rely, In an increasingly perfunctory manner, on the work of others, Unfortunately this makes it impossible 10 follow the admirable con vention by which scholars punctiliously acknowledge thei soures, and especially their debs, so that nobody bu the originators should claim as ‘heir own findings made freely availabe to all. Inthe fst place, T doubt whether I could trace all the suggestions and ideas I have borrowed s0 freely back to their origin in some book or article, conversation oF di cussion. Tean only ask those whete work Ihave looted, consciously of not, {0 forgive my discourtesy. In the second place even the atempt 10 do $0, ‘would overload the book with an apparatus of learning quite unsuitable to it, However, thee i a general gue to further reading, which includes some ofthe works Ihave found most useful and to which I would wish 10 acknowledge my debt. a