E.J. Hobsbawm’s classic historiographic study explores the perception of the French Revolution over the past two centuries. He considers how and why different generations and political factions have recounted it in radically different ways: as proletarian or as bourgeois, as ephemeral or as world-changing, as enlightened progress or as violent anarchy. 

This classic study offers a comparative analysis of Greek and modern conceptions of democracy. Putting the ancient Greeks in dialogue with their contemporary counterparts, it tackles some of the most pressing issues of our day, including public apathy, partisanship, consensus politics, distrust of professional politicians, and the limits of free speech.