Historian Hobsbawm dies aged 95

ISTANBUL

Hobsbawm succumbed to long-term illness at Royal Free Hospital in London.

Eric Hobsbawm, one of the leading historians of the 20th century, has died at the age of 95, his family announced yesterday, according to Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

Hobsbawm was a renowned Marxist and a long-time member of the now-defunct Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the associated Communist Party Historians Group.

The academic, whose work on European history has long been perceived as seminal in the field, was president of Birkbeck, University of London.

Uniquely for a Marxist, Hobsbawm was appointed as a Companion of Honour in 1998, a high-ranking British honor for outstanding achievement in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion, joining people like Norman Tebbit, former secretary of state of employment under Margaret Thatcher, and former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major.

In 2003, Hobsbawm was awarded the Balzan Prize for post-1900 European history “for his brilliant analysis of the troubled history of 20th-century Europe and for his ability to combine in-depth historical research.”