1. “The ideal historian of Marxism has to be part theoretician, part polymath; part believer, part sceptic; polylingual but not Pollyanna.” … “How To Change the World … is his 16th book and appears, impressively, in his 94th year. Although the book is largely made up of previously published material, much of it has never appeared in English and some of it has been revised and updated.”

2. “Hitherto, philosophers have sought to understand the world; the point, however, is to change it.” … “Perhaps the truth is that Marxism has, despite its founder’s famous proclamation, always contributed more to understanding the world than to changing it. Certainly, Eric Hobsbawm has done more than most to further that understanding. And if we ask what his own final view may be about the prospects for changing the world, then we are, happily, still in a position to adapt Zhou Enlai’s answer about the French revolution – that it’s too early to say.”