Bandits

Published in 1969, this study by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm looks at how Europe has imagined and remembered its outlaws. Rather than treating banditry as simple crime, Hobsbawm examines the bandit as a figure shaped by popular stories, songs and legends, and asks how those portrayals connect with Marxist ideas about class conflict.

Hobsbawm develops his well-known notion of the "social bandit", a rural outlaw whom peasant communities tend to view as a defender against landlords, authorities and injustice. The book's Marxist framework makes it a key text for readers interested in the relationship between peasant resistance and historical change.