Certain books are opportune because of their theme, their timing or their potential political impact.
Empire is just such a text.
Between them they have crafted a profound and most readable text which will surely be influential. Debatable as many points in this book are, it is certainly a thought-provoking point. In the post-Seattle wave of thinking and acting on democratising globalisation I think we may find here a useful avenue of enquiry. Localist opposition to globalisation may well be politically well intentioned but, according to Hardt and Negri it rests on false assumptions and is therefore damaging . . It also misidentifies the enemy insofar as the production of locality is also an effect of the globalisation processes.