“It has taken five years for Eric Hobsbawm’s world-acclaimed Age of Extremes to appear in French – even though it has been translated into more than 20 languages. By November, one month after publication, the book was on all the best-selling lists, with 40,000 copies printed. The whole affair has revealed the disquiet and ambiguities that surround intellectual life in France. No-one denied the quality of the work. Nor was it a question of financial considerations. It was Hobsbawm’s ideas that were in question, in particular his unrepentant position on the left.” – Le Monde Diplomatique