Hobsbawm on His Memoir

Hobsbawm has defined and explained the progress of the last century as mankind learning to 'live in expectation of apocalypse'. 


http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=7315
" ... the B side, the flip side, of the main record, which is my history of the twentieth century, Age of Extremes."

"If I want to say briefly what personal effect it had on me I would say the first effect, of not merely living under these circumstances but also of having a kind of difficult childhood, which you can read about in my book, [was that I learned that you] handle your problems yourself. Don't talk about them. If you can't solve them, nobody else will. That's one. 

Second, try and not have any illusions about the world you live in. That sounds funny for somebody that has a lot of illusions, but the fact is that you had hopes. But try, living in this situation, not to have uncritical hopes. 

And the third, not to be a quitter. To stick to what you want. The only thing that would keep you going is a firm hold on yourself and your loyalties and what you wanted to do and what you felt you had to do."