The Age of Capital

Hobsbawm penetratingly and authoritatively analyzes the rise of industrial capitalism and the consolidation of bourgeois culture. The Age of Capital, the second volume in Hobsbawm's four-volume world history, is a history not only of Europe, but of the world, encompassing the extension of capitalist economy to the four corners of the globe, the mounting concentration of wealth, the migration of men, and the domination of Europe and European culture that made the third quarter of the nineteenth century a watershed. Hobsbawm identifies the victims and victors of the bourgeois ethos, integrating economics with political and intellectual developments to form an intellectually coherent whole that is essential to an understanding the state of the world today.  

"As Hobsbawm brilliantly argues, the quarter-century beginning with the European revolutions of 1848 and ending with the economic depression of the mid 1870s must be understood from a global perspective.... Hobsbawm is at his best...when he dissects the bourgeois culture of 'respectability' "--The New York Times Book Review  

"A book of great originality and learning which gives a coherent picture of a period in which so many of our own problems have their roots."--New Statesman

" One of the great achievements of historical writing in recent decades. "--The New York Review of Books

The other volumes in the series, The Age of Revolution, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes are all available from Vintage Books.