Eric Hobsbawm was born in 1917. Member of the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, holder of honorary degrees from universities in different countries. The book "Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century (1914-1991)" invariably falls into all catalogs of books on universal history. The solution to this phenomenal success is simple: the English scientist created a detailed and original overview of the most important phenomena and processes characteristic of world society between 1914 and I991.