Preface 1. The Political Constitution of the Present 1.1 World Order 1.2 Biopolitical Production 1.3 Alternatives within Empire 2. Passages of Sovereignty 2.1 Two Europes, Two Modernities 2.2 Sovereignty of the Nation-State 2.3 The Dialectics of Colonial Sovereignty 2.4 Symptoms of Passage 2.5 Network Power: U.S. Sovereignty and the New Empire 2.6 Imperial Sovereignty Intermezzo: Counter-Empire 3. Passages of Production 3.1 The Limits of Imperialism 3.2 Disciplinary Governability 3.3 Resistance, Crisis, Transformation 3.4 Postmodernization, or The Informatization of Production 3.5 Mixed Constitution 3.6 Capitalist Sovereignty, or Administering the Global Society of Control 4. The Decline and Fall of Empire 4.1 Virtualities 4.2 Generation and Corruption 4.3 The Multitude against Empire Notes Index
Michael Hardt and Tony Negri have given us an original, suggestive and provocative assessment of the international economic and political moment we have entered. Abandoning many of the propositions of conventional marxism such as imperialism, the centrality of the national contexts of social struggle and a cardboard notion of the working class, the authors nonetheless show the salience of the marxist framework as a tool of explanation. This book is bound to stimulate a new debate about globalization and the possibilities for social transformation in the 21st century. -- Stanley Aronowitz, author of False Promises: The Shaping of American Working Class Consciousness Empire is a stunningly original attempt to come to grips with the cultural, political, and economic transformations of the contemporary world. While refusing to ignore history, Hardt and Negri question the adequacy of existing theoretical categories, and offer new concepts for approaching the practices and regimes of power of the emergent world order. Whether one agrees with it or not, it is an all too rare effort to engage with the most basic and pressing questions facing political intellectuals today. -- Lawrence Grossberg, author of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture An extraordinary book, with enormous intellectual depth and a keen sense of the history-making transformation that is beginning to take shape--a new system of rule Hardt and Negri name Empire imperialism. -- Saskia Sassen, author of Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization By way of Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Marx, the Vietnam War, and even Bill Gates, Empire offers an irresistible, iconoclastic analysis of the 'globalized' world. Revolutionary, even visionary, Empire identifies the imminent new power of the multitude to free themselves from capitalist bondage. -- Leslie Marmon Silko, author of Almanac of the Dead After reading Empire, one cannot escape the impression that if this book were not written, it would have to be invented. What Hardt and Negri offer is nothing less than a rewriting of The Communist Manifesto for our time: Empire conclusively demonstrates how global capitalism generates antagonisms that will finally explode its form. This book rings the death-bell not only for the complacent liberal advocates of the 'end of history,' but also for pseudo-radical Cultural Studies which avoid the full confrontation with today's capitalism. -- Slavoj Zizek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Center of Political Ontology Empire is one of the most brilliant, erudite, and yet incisively political interpretations available to date of the phenomenon called 'globalization.' Engaging critically with postcolonial and postmodern theories, and mindful throughout of the plural histories of modernity and capitalism, Hardt and Negri rework Marxism to develop a vision of politics that is both original and timely. This very impressive book will be debated and discussed for a long time. -- Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Provincializing Europe The new book by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Empire, is an amazing tour de force. Written with communicative enthusiasm, extensive historical knowledge, systematic organization, it basically combines a kojevian notion of global market as post-history (in this sense akin to Fukuyama's eschatology) with a foucauldian and deleuzian notion of bio-politics (in this sense crossing the road of a Sloterdijk who also poses the question of a coming techniques of the production of the human species). But it clearly outbids its rivals in philosophical skill. And, above all, it reverses their grim prospects of political stagnation or the return to zoology. By identifying the new advances of technology and the division of labor that underlies the globalization of the market and the corresponding de-centered structure of sovereignty with a deep structure of power located within the multitude's intellectual and affective corporeity, it seeks to identify the indestructible sources of resistance and constitution that frame our future. It claims to lay the foundations for a teleology of class struggles and militancy even more substantially "communist" than the classical Marxist one. This will no doubt trigger a lasting and passionate discussion among philosophers, political scientists and socialists. Whatever their conclusions, the benefits will be enormous for intelligence. -- Etienne Balibar, author of Spinoza and Politics
Michael Hardt is Professor of Literature and Italian at Duke University. Antonio Negri was an independent researcher and writer. He was formerly a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Paris and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Padua.
Michael Hardt and Tony Negri have given us an original, suggestive
and provocative assessment of the international economic and
political moment we have entered. Abandoning many of the
propositions of conventional Marxism such as imperialism, the
centrality of the national contexts of social struggle and a
cardboard notion of the working class, the authors nonetheless show
the salience of the Marxist framework as a tool of explanation.
This book is bound to stimulate a new debate about globalization
and the possibilities for social transformation in the 21st
century.
*Stanley Aronowitz, author of False Promises: The Shaping of
American Working Class Consciousness*
Empire…is a bold move away from established doctrine. Hardt and
Negri's insistence that there really is a new world is promulgated
with energy and conviction. Especially striking is their
renunciation of the tendency of many writers on globalization to
focus exclusively on the top, leaving the impression that what
happens down below, to ordinary people, follows automatically from
what the great powers do.
*The Nation*
Empire is a stunningly original attempt to come to grips with the
cultural, political, and economic transformations of the
contemporary world. While refusing to ignore history, Hardt and
Negri question the adequacy of existing theoretical categories, and
offer new concepts for approaching the practices and regimes of
power of the emergent world order. Whether one agrees with it or
not, it is an all too rare effort to engage with the most basic and
pressing questions facing political intellectuals today.
*Lawrence Grossberg, author of We Gotta Get Out of This Place:
Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture*
An extraordinary book, with enormous intellectual depth and a keen
sense of the history-making transformation that is beginning to
take shape—a new system of rule Hardt and Negri name Empire
imperialism.
*Saskia Sassen, author of Losing Control? Sovereignty in an Age
of Globalization*
By way of Spinoza, Wittgenstein, Marx, the Vietnam War, and even
Bill Gates, Empire offers an irresistible, iconoclastic analysis of
the 'globalized' world. Revolutionary, even visionary, Empire
identifies the imminent new power of the multitude to free
themselves from capitalist bondage.
*Leslie Marmon Silko, author of Almanac of the Dead*
After reading Empire, one cannot escape the impression that if this
book were not written, it would have to be invented. What Hardt and
Negri offer is nothing less than a rewriting of The Communist
Manifesto for our time: Empire conclusively demonstrates how global
capitalism generates antagonisms that will finally explode its
form. This book rings the death-bell not only for the complacent
liberal advocates of the 'end of history,' but also for
pseudo-radical Cultural Studies which avoid the full confrontation
with today's capitalism.
*Slavoj Žižek, author of The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Center
of Political Ontology*
Empire is one of the most brilliant, erudite, and yet incisively
political interpretations available to date of the phenomenon
called 'globalization.' Engaging critically with postcolonial and
postmodern theories, and mindful throughout of the plural histories
of modernity and capitalism, Hardt and Negri rework Marxism to
develop a vision of politics that is both original and timely. This
very impressive book will be debated and discussed for a long
time.
*Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of Provincializing Europe*
The new book by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Empire, is an
amazing tour de force. Written with communicative enthusiasm,
extensive historical knowledge, systematic organization, it
basically combines a kojevian notion of global market as
post-history (in this sense akin to Fukuyama's eschatology) with a
foucauldian and deleuzian notion of bio-politics (in this sense
crossing the road of a Sloterdijk who also poses the question of a
coming techniques of the production of the human species). But it
clearly outbids its rivals in philosophical skill. And, above all,
it reverses their grim prospects of political stagnation or the
return to zoology. By identifying the new advances of technology
and the division of labor that underlies the globalization of the
market and the corresponding de-centered structure of sovereignty
with a deep structure of power located within the multitude's
intellectual and affective corporeity, it seeks to identify the
indestructible sources of resistance and constitution that frame
our future. It claims to lay the foundations for a teleology of
class struggles and militancy even more substantially 'communist'
than the classical Marxist one. This will no doubt trigger a
lasting and passionate discussion among philosophers, political
scientists and socialists. Whatever their conclusions, the benefits
will be enormous for intelligence.
*Etienne Balibar, author of Spinoza and Politics*
So what does a disquisition on globalization have to offer scholars
in crisis? First, there is the book's broad sweep and range of
learning. Spanning nearly 500 pages of densely argued history,
philosophy and political theory, it features sections on Imperial
Rome, Haitian slave revolts, the American Constitution and the
Persian Gulf War, and references to dozens of thinkers like
Machiavelli, Spinoza, Hegel, Hobbes, Kant, Marx and Foucault. In
short, the book has the formal trappings of a master theory in the
old European tradition… [This] book is full of…bravura passages.
Whether presenting new concepts—like Empire and multitude—or urging
revolution, it brims with confidence in its ideas. Does it have the
staying power and broad appeal necessary to become the next master
theory? It is too soon to say. But for the moment, Empire is
filling a void in the humanities.
*New York Times*
One of the rare benefits to the credit [of the contemporary Empire]
is to have undermined the ramparts of the nation, ethnicity, race,
and peoples by multiplying the instances of contact and
hybridization. Perhaps, at least this is the hope forwarded by
these two Marx and Engels of the internet age, it has thus made
possible the coming of new forms of transnational solidarity that
will defeat Empire.
*Le Nouvel Observateur*
A sweeping neo-Marxist vision of the coming world order. The
authors argue that globalization is not eroding sovereignty but
transforming it into a system of diffuse national and supranational
institutions—in other words, a new 'empire'…[that] encompasses all
of modern life.
*Foreign Affairs*
Globalization's positive side is, intriguingly, a message of a hot
new book. Since it was published last year, Empire…has been
translated into four new languages, with six more on the way… It is
selling briskly on Amazon.com and is impossible to find in
Manhattan bookstores. For 413 pages of dense political
philosophy—whose compass ranges from body piercing to
Machiavelli—that's impressive.
*Time*
How often can it happen that a book is swept off the shelves until
you can't find a copy in New York for love nor money? …Empire is a
sweeping history of humanist philosophy, Marxism and modernity that
propels itself to a grand political conclusion: that we are a
creative and enlightened species, and that our history is that of
humanity's progress towards the seizure of power from those who
exploit it.
*The Observer*
Hardt is not just bent on saving the world. He has also been
credited with dragging the humanities in American universities out
of the doldrums… [Empire] presents a philosophical vision that some
have greeted as the 'next big thing' in the field of the
humanities, with its authors the natural successors of names such
as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault.
*Sunday Times*
Hailed as the new Communist Manifesto on its dust jacket, this
hefty tome may be worthy of such distinction… Hardt and Negri
analyze the multiple processes of globalization…and argue that the
new sovereign, the new order of the globalized world, is a
decentered and deterritorializing apparatus of rule… Though Empire
ties together diverse strands of often opaque structuralist and
poststructuralist theory…the writing is surprisingly clear,
accessible, and engaging… Hardt and Negri write to communicate
beyond the claustrophobic redoubts of the academy… In short, Empire
is a comprehensive and exciting analysis of the now reified concept
of globalization, offering a lucid understanding of the
political–economic quagmire of our present and a glimpse into the
possible worlds beyond it.
*Cultural Critique*
In their recent book Empire—a highly explosive analysis of
globalisation—[the authors] take the effort to develop a full
narrative of this new world order, of the global postmodern
sovereignty and its counter-currents. It is therefore not so much a
book on hybridity only, but rather an attempt to reformulate and
redefine the political under conditions of globalisation. The
result is a resolute tour de force delineating the genealogy of the
postmodern regime as well as its consolidation as a new 'society of
control' under conditions of world-wide 'real subsumption' which
creates one smooth, global capitalist terrain.
*Journal for the Study of British Cultures*
Stretching back nearly twenty years, Antonio Negri's work has been
until recently one of the best-kept secrets of Marxist theory in
the United States… [Empire] is the culmination of Negri's lifework
and a major contribution to Marx's uncompleted work on capitalism's
international phase. Beyond its inherent scholarly merit, however,
Empire provides a critical tool for understanding what the events
following September 11th mean as history and politics.
*Bookforum*
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire…owes its density not to
affected language—indeed, its manifesto-like communicative urgency
is one of its greatest strengths—but to the exhilarating novelty of
what it has to say… This is as simple, as apparently innocent, and
as radically counter-intuitive when thought to its limit as the
Sartrean dictum that existence precedes essence must have been in
its time. It's not that this relation had never been thought
before; the connection between the demands of labor unions and the
development of the automated factory is well-known. But in Hardt
and Negri's hands this relation becomes a powerful new way to
theorize globalization and the development of capital itself… Hardt
and Negri perform the urgent task of reclaiming Utopia for the
multitude.
*Symploke*
Hardt, an assistant professor of literature and a political
scientist (and currently a prison inmate), has produced one of the
most comprehensive theoretical efforts to understand
globalization.
*Choice*
The appearance of Empire represents a spectacular break. Michael
Hardt and Antonio Negri defiantly overturn the verdict that the
last two decades have been a time of punitive defeats for the Left…
Hardt and Negri open their case by arguing that, although
nation-state–based systems of power are rapidly unraveling in the
force-fields of world capitalism, globalization cannot be
understood as a simple process of deregulating markets. Far from
withering away, regulations today proliferate and interlock to form
an acephelous supranational order which the authors choose to call
'Empire' …Empire bravely upholds the possibility of a utopian
manifesto for these times, in which the desire for another world
buried or scattered in social experience could find an authentic
language and point of concentration.
*New Left Review*
This sprawling book is filled with original ideas and analyses,
including some well-aimed critiques of postmodernism, dependency
theory, world systems theory, anti-imperialism, and localism—and
there is much more besides to stimulate the reader… This is an
exciting and provocative book whose depth and richness can only be
hinted at in so brief a review.
*Political Science Quarterly*
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