Empire

Empire 0 is a sweeping book with a big-picture vision. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argue that while classical imperialism has largely disappeared, a new empire is emerging in a diffuse blend of technology, economics, and globalization. The book brings together unlikely bedfellows: Hardt, associate professor in Duke University's literature program, and Negri, among other things a writer and inmate at Rebibbia Prison in Rome. f0i Empire 0 aspires to the same scale of grand political philosophy as Locke or Marx or Fukuyama, but whether Hardt and Negri accomplish this daunting task is debatable. It is, however, an exciting book that is especially timely following the emergence of terrorism as a geopolitical force. Hardt and Negri maintain that empire--traditionally understood as military or capitalist might--has embarked upon a new stage of historical development and is now better understood as a complex web of sociopolitical forces. They argue, with a neo-Marxist bent, that "the multitude" will transcend and defeat the new empire on its own terms. The authors address everything from the works of Deleuze to Jefferson's constitutional democracy to the Chiapas revolution in a far-ranging analysis of our contemporary situation. Unfortunately, their penchant for references and academese sometimes renders the prose unwieldy. But if Hardt and Negri's vision of the world materializes, they will undoubtedly be remembered as prophetic. f0i --Eric de Place 0

uuid: A242466C-EE5C-11D9-96E7-000393C32346
upc: 9780674006713
title: Empire
purchase date: 06-07-2005
publisher: Harvard University Press
published: 01-07-2001
price: $19.95
pages: 504
net Rating: 3
last lookup time: 142374576
genre: Democracy History & Theory Relations Leadership
fullTitle: Empire
currentValue: $10.74
created: 142374560
country: us
author: Michael Hardt Antonio Negri
aspect: Paperback
asin: 0674006712