On Eric Hobsbawm's "Bottom-up" View Of History

There is no doubt that the Marxist people view is an important part of Marxist theory,but some Marxist interpretation models have ignored it more or less since 20th century.In contrast,the British Marxist theorists have always adhered to a thorough view of the history of the masses,and many scholars have insisted on the hard work of the masses as the focus of their own research,and focus on their real-life experiences and their enormous role in promoting historical change,and trying to restore the true social and historical outlook,in order to prove the historical position of the masses.Therefore,they actively combined the basic theory of Marxism with the specific British historical study,and through unremitting exploration and efforts,they finally created a new mode of social history research by collective strength——"history of below".Eric Hobsbawn developed and perfected it by actively drawing on a variety of ideological resources.In this process,he gradually developed his own "bottom-up" view of history.The central idea of this view of history lies in its insistence on examining social history under the guidance of historical materialism,emphasizing that the masses are the real protagonist of social history,and advocating that historical research should stand on their shoes and care for their fate and sufferings,and observe the changes of social history from bottom to top,so as to write the whole social history based on the masses.Guided by this view of history,Hobsbawm carefully examined the historical experience of the underworld "nobody" who had been neglected in the past,and vividly reproduced the real living conditions and historical destinies of gangsters,shoemakers,laborers,farmers and so on.By demonstrating the decisive role they play in promoting productivity innovation,social change and the creation of ideological and cultural traditions,he finally proved the scientific conclusion that "the masses of the people are the creators and promoters of history" with detailed facts,and thus defended the correctness of historical materialism.As a professional historian,Hobsbawm's work focuses in narrating history,but there is no shortage of his unique understanding and brilliant exposition of the historical materialism.In essence,his "bottom-up" view of history is a contemporary exposition and development of historical materialism in the light of the reality of Britain.On the one hand,it actively combines the elucidation of the basic Marxist theory with the specific study of British history,interprets the profound materialist historical concept with easy to understand language,which promotes the dissemination and development of historical materialism in contemporary England.On the other hand,it has effectively made up for the neglect of historical materialism in some concrete problems and conclusions with concrete historical research results.In order to defend the scientific nature of Marxist theory and make it more easily accepted and believed by the general public.At the same time,it has also promoted the development and popularization of the "bottom-up"historical research model.It has deeply affected the attention and depth of the study of civilian history in Britain even the world.Hobsbawm's "bottom-up" view of history is not only contains rich ideological content,but also has important theoretical value,which is very helpful for us to better understand the profound connotation of historical materialism under the new historical conditions.This paper attempts to explore the materialist view of history from the standpoint of historical materialism in order to better grasp its rich connotation and theoretical value.