New Left Review I/227, January-February 1998

Geoff Eley

Socialism By Any Other Name? Illusions and Renewal in the History of the Western European Left

The 1990s are hard times for socialists. A dynamic capitalism is no longer much restrained by labour, or by the constraints imposed by socialism’s presence. Eric Hobsbawm, the most judicious of commentators from inside the socialist tradition, could only end his recent book, Age of Extremes, on a note of sombre regret. While at pains to distinguish the question of socialism in general from ‘really existing socialism’, he could find no means of translating this abstract defence into the materials of an actual revival. The ground of a feasible socialism seems to have vanished. [1] See Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991, London 1994, pp. 498, 584.

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