The Empire's New Clothes: Reading Hardt and Negri

Description

Since its publication last year, Empire has come to dominate the academic world, stimulating debate and discussion throughout the humanities, social sciences, and into the mainstream media. The New York Times made outrageous claims about its importance, pointing to the "scholarly commotion" it has caused, and suggesting a book like this comes along only "once every decade or so" (July 7, 2001). Translation rights to Empire have been sold in ten countries already and the question has been raised whether Michael Hardt, one of the two authors, is the next Jacques Derrida. A new theoretical idea has been hitched to the voguish concern over globalization, and Empire describes the new form of sovereignty that has emerged under conditions of globalization ("Empire"); delivers an account of a new emancipatory subject (the "multitude"); and advances a set of empirical claims about the terrain of the processes that have come to be understood as "globalization." It's also a manifesto of sorts for the revolution in an age of globalization. With pieces by Slavoj Zizek, Ernesto Laclau, and others, Empire's New Clothes addresses Empire in all its complexity, that is, as a work of legal and political theory that diagnoses our era and urges liberatory action. More precisely, it will set the outlines of the debate as it is emerging around the claims of Empire. Ruth Bachman, University of British Columbia Malcom Bull, Oxford (and the original London Review of Books reviewer) Peter Fitzpatrick, University of London Sundhya Pah

"An extraordinary set of essays by prominent social and legal theorists-bold, accessible, critical and timely. By highlighting legal processes in Hardt and Negri's model of a new global order, these essays reveal some of the innovations and limitations of their call for revolutionary action by the multitudes."
-Eve Darian-Smith, University of California at Berkeley
"Hardt and Negri's magisterial "Empire has evoked passionate controversies and debates. The studies collected in this volume critically engage a wide range of themes in Hardt and Negri from the nature of globalization to the environment and the media in "Empire. Through intense dialogue and the debate with Hardt and Negri, the articles collected in "Empire's New Cloths raise fundamental issues of theory and practice in the contemporary era."
-Douglas Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles
"Offers thoughtful and thought-provoking discussions of different facts of Hardt and Negri'sargument, ranging from philosophical issues of sovereignty and citizenship to issues in globalization, political protest, gender and the environment...Conceived before September 11th, but produced in its aftermath, the essays also offer stimulating thoughts on the relevance of the theoretical issues discussed to everyday politics, and visa versa."
-Arif Dirlik, University of Oregon