This is a really impressive performance by this distinguished historian. Hobsbawm seems to know everything about the 20th
century, has actually lived through most of it and writes from the combined perspective of a remarkably accomplished scholar and direct observer of events. Readers should be aware that this book is a sequel to his impressive trilogy on the 19th century, The Age or Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age of Empire. In those books, Hobsbawm followed two key themes, the impact of industrial capitalism on European and world history, and the persistence through the 19th century of the revolutionary tradition that begins with the French Revolution. Readers should be aware also that this book is not a convential
narrative overview but follows these major themes with considerable
analysis. Some readers (see some reviews below) are put off by Hobsbawm's marxian (not the same as Marxist) approach. This approach, however, is a powerful tool for making sense of the complexities of the past century. Hobsbawm is an avowed Marxist but his work is not doctrinaire in any sense. In this book, for example, he remarks that the 19th century really was a century of progress, both material and moral. Not the statement of a doctrinaire leftist. His erudition is remarkable but not showy and employed only as needed to carry forward his narrative and analysis. This book is never boring, always compelling and challenging. The focus of this book is very much on Europe and North America. Hobsbawm is explicitly, unashamedly, and appropriately eurocentric in his emphasis on these regions as the key theatres for the actions of 20th century history. The best overviews of complex historical topics combine narrative with thematic analysis as a way of unifying the narrative. See, for example, Patterson's recent Grand Expectations, an overview of recent American history in which the quest for rights by traditionally disadvantaged groups is treated as a unifying theme of our recent past. The Age of Extremes is a remarkable combination of narration and analysis that illuminates the darkness of the past century.