Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm

a Pelican Book

In this monograph on 'social bandits', which the Guardian called 'a dazzling historical squib, fizzing with ideas and strange stories', Eric Hobsbawm deals 'essentially with a form of individual or minority rebellion within peasant societies'. Among the violent popular heroes 'Who are not regarded as simple criminals by public opinion', he identifies three principal types which are suprisingly universal and uniform: noble robbers, such as Robin Hood; avengers, like the Brazilian cangaçeiro, Lampiao; and haiduks or primitive resistance fighters.

Setting the historical figures against the ballads, legends and even films about them, the author analyses the 'who and why' of banditry in past and present, whether in Europe, Asia or America, defines its economic and political functions, and distinguishes — though he includes a fascinating chapter on Sabaté and other political bank- robbers — the bandit from the social revolutionary.

'The book, though brief, covers the world, from China to the Apennines, and its many illustrations lend fine support' — Sunday Telegraph

The cover, designed by Germano Facetti, shows a detail from 'Scene of Aggression, Sicily, 1820', by kind permission of Antonino Ucello

With illustrations

Language: English

Dit boek is op voorraad in ons magazijn in Nederland en snel beschikbaar

Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm, good copy
Penguin Books, pocket, 160 pages
ISBN 0140214747

Price without shipping costs