Bad week for Marxist historians

The deaths of Eugene Genovese and Eric Hobsbawm within a few days of one another mark the waning of a generation of historians strongly influenced by a version of Marxism that emphasized the role of class struggle as a driving force of world history. The contrast between Genovese's 180-degree twist to social conservatism and Hobsbawm's "unrepentant" communism is also emblematic of the fate of the socialist left since the Cold War. They don't make 'em like that any more... a mixed blessing.