Eric Hobsbawm on 2011: ‘It reminds me of 1848...’

"It reminds me of 1848 - another self-propelled revolution which started in one country then spread all over the continent in a short time."

For those who once crowded Tahrir Square and are now worried about the fate of their revolution, he has a word of comfort.

"Two years after 1848, it looked as if it had all failed. In the long run, it hadn't failed. A good deal of liberal advances had been made. So it was an immediate failure but a longer term partial success - though no longer in the form of a revolution."

Read the rest. (h/t Pathologically Polymathic)