Bandits

I finally finished Eric Hobsbawn's classic work on agrarian bandits whose role as social rebels comes mostly from fiction rather than historical reality. Robin Hood, Wilhelm Tell and Zorro are not based on historic examples. Bandits were bandits. The backwardness and lack of civil society in agricultural societies made law enforcement very expensive. Peasants were always vulnerable to the hit-and-run tactics of bandits and were thus forced into a grudging acceptance of some predation. What is commendable is the incredible world-wide sourcing of bandit stories by Hobsbawn with examples from Latin America, China, India, Ukraine, Spain, Eastern Europe ... The overall message is mixed though: The social rebel Hobsbawn went out to discover show more does not actually exist in reality. The criminals are criminals not because they hold a grudge against "the man" but because crime looks attractive as a career in their view. It is probably the human desire for a good story that turns common criminals into the tragic heroes of ballads. show less

I read this for the in-person Left Book Club in Manchester that met in October 2024.

I found this to be a very unsatisfying read to be honest, and probably wouldn't have finished it without the deadline of a book club to drive me on. It never really felt like there was a coherent theory about Bandits that was being pulled together, or perhaps it was just that Hobsbawm couldn't quite make his evidence about individual Bandits fit into a larger narrative.

Some of the individual stories were fascinating, and there's definitely plenty of meat for a juicy popular history on Banditry that could be written. The appendix on media representation of Bandits could also be expanded out to likely be a much more interesting book. The nugatory three show more page appendix on women bandits was so pointless as to be insulting. Not Hobsbawm's best work. show less