Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
Complex, ambitious, disquieting, and ultimately hopeful,Multitudeis the work of a couple of writers and thinkers who dare to address the great issues of our time from a truly alternative perspective. The sequel to 2001's equally bold and demandingEmpirecontinues in the vein of the earlier tome. WhereEmpire's central premise was that the time of nation-state power grabs was passing as a new global order made up of "a new form of sovereignty" consisting of corporations, global-wide institutions, and other command centers is in ascendancy,Multitudefocuses on the masses within the empire, except that, where academics Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri are concerned, this body is defined by its diversity rather than its commonalities. The challenge for the multitude in this new era is "for the social multiplicity to manage to communicate and act in common while remaining internally different." One may already be rereading that last sentence. Indeed,Empireisn't breezy reading. But for those aren't afraid of wadding into a knotty philosophical and political discourse of uncommon breadth,Multitudeoffers many rewards.--Steven Stolder--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.