Abstract

In the following article we make an analysis of the paper of the First World War in a possible “philosophy of the history” of the British historian Eric Hobsbawm. To achieve this we first give three axial arguments to defend our position that asserts that Hobsbawm developed, in a certain way, a philosophy of history. Then we move on enumerate the causes that the historian found triggered the Great War, in order to comprehend the nature and functionality of them inside of his philosophy of history. We end reflecting on the meaning of the First War inside the global historical evolution, in so far as that specific strife, according to Hobsbawm, signified for mankind both progresses and regressions on various areas of the life. It was a strife that seems to simultaneously mean, therefore, a hope and a deception for the rationalistic objectives of the Enlightenment and the ends of Marxism.