Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most prolific modern historians alive today, delivers more a series of provocative musings and observations than a unified whole in his most recent book, On Empire. The common theme throughout is the idea of empire and its relationship, if any, to stability in the international system. When empire is not the subject, war, peace, and the transformation of the international state system in the 20th century are. On the first subject, I find this book a useful summary of leftist thinking on empire, but not a novel one: there was once an age of empire, these entities did not generate peace between empires but rather continued to exist because of coincidental peace, and the age of empire that the United States has attempted to resurrect in its unipolar moment since the end of the Cold War is unlikely to succeed. As a staunch communist and social historian, Hobsbawm cannot resist the point that empires through history have rarely even had peace within their borders, routinely engaging in military operations on their frontiers and against natives in their homeland.

However, as a commentary on the international state system and disorder over the last 100 years, this book is a triumph. Partly, this is because of Hobsbawm's characteristic clarity. But it is also for his bluntness. By merely stating basic truths without acclaim, he underscores so much of the calamity of the 20th century, as well as the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in at present. He writes of "the return of mass human catastrophe, up to and including the wholesale expulsion of peoples and genocide" after the end of the Cold War. Of the 20th century, he writes "Taken as having begun in 1914, it was a century of almost unbroken war." Still, I think his most fascinating contributions here are his emphasis on intra-state conflict and the "crisis of the sovereign nation-state" as the greatest threats to international order. Well, that and unbridled American (and Western) neo-imperialist interventionism, of course! Lest we forget that the author is one of the few remaining card-carrying communists left in the Western world.

Hobsbawm occasionally devolves into political diatribe, as in his comment "Frankly, I can't make sense of what has happened in the United States since 9/11 that has enabled a group of political crazies to realize the long-held plans for an unaccompanied solo performance of world supremacy." Melodramatic, perhaps, but it's more amusing chatter than a serious flaw in the work. Overall, a short, fun, and interesting read. Three cheers to Professor Hobsbawm for still thinking (mostly) intelligent thoughts at the tender age of 91!