This collection of 26 essays range over the history of working men and women between the late 18th century and the present day, and brings back into print a selection of this celebrated historian's pioneering studies into labour history, together with more recent reflections previously unpublished in book form. Eric Hobsbawm's penetrating essays on labour history and social protest opened up a new field of study and set standards of wide-ranging, evocative, incisive analysis. Essays in this collection include the formation of the British working class; labour custom and traditions; the political radicalism of 19th century shoemakers; male and female images in revolutionary movements; revolution and sex; peasants and politics; and the common-sense of Tom Paine. More recent essays include meditations on the May Day holiday; the Vietnam War; socialism and the avantgarde; Mario Puzo, the Mafia and the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano; and the cultural consequences of Christopher Columbus. Throughout these essays runs a passionate concern for the lives and struggles of ordinary men and women - uncommon people, all of them.

艾瑞克•霍布斯鲍姆（Eric J. Hobsbawn）是享誉国际，备受推崇的近代史大师。1917年出生于埃及亚历山大城的犹太中产家庭。1919年举家迁往维也纳，1932年迁居柏林，在第一次世界大战后受创很深的德奥两国度过童年。1933年转赴英国完成中学，随后进入剑桥大学历史系。1959年成为伦敦伯贝克学院高级讲师，1978年取得经济及历史学教授头衔，1982年退休。之后大部分时间任教于纽约社会研究新学院，是该校政治社会史荣誉教授。2012年10月于英国病逝。霍布斯鲍姆是英国著名的左派史家，自就读大学期间即活跃于英国共产党，直至该党于1991年解散为止都是共产党员。其研究时期以19世纪为主，并延伸及17、18及20世纪；研究地域从英国、欧洲扩及拉丁美洲。在劳工运动、农民叛乱以及世界史范畴内的研究成果，堪居当代史家顶尖之流，在学术界有很大影响；而其宏观通畅的写作风格，更将叙述史学的魅力扩及大众。