Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th…

This book did much to establish "social banditry" as a serious topic of study, recognizing that some bandits could have serious motives derived from the social conditions around them.. It grew out of lectures on 19th-20th century bandits in Sicily, but also included peasant and working class "primitive rebels" from Britain, Spain, Ukraine, etc. in roughly the same period. The book also includes appendixes of readings from members of several such groups. ( )

I didn't know much about the topic, so I appreciated Hobsbawm's detailed reference list and contextualisation of rebels in Italy, Spain, etc. His thesis is an interesting one, but in my opinion he is too summarily dismissive about the potential for true social change through 'primitive' action. Another major gripe for me was the author's shallow and rather uninformed treatment of transformational religious movements. In the section on worker sects, the analysis is disappointingly simplistic: Hobsbawm describes Christian movements as completely gnostic and condemns religion as simply as a substitute for action, or even a hindrance on it. This stance is at odds with many examples from history, including worker-priests and the social doctrine developed in particular in the Catholic Church.

To sum up: it's an interesting topic and thesis, but the analysis is dated and lacking real depth exactly when it's needed, namely in the examination of religion (and Christianity in particular) as a powerful motivator for social change. ( )