Empire by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt

Empire is a text written by Marxist philosophers Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. The book, written in the mid 90s, was published in 2000 and quickly sold beyond its expectations as an academic work. In general, the book theorizes an ongoing transition from a "modern" phenomenon of imperialism, centered around individual nation-states, to an emergent postmodern construct created amongst ruling powers which the authors call Empire (the capital letter is distinguishing), with different forms of warfare.

HERE IS A CRITIQUE OF EMPIRE by Peter Di Nardo

If anyone has a copy of Multitude please share.

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Empires New Clothes Reading Hardt and Negri by Jodi Dean Paul Passavant

After September 11 this discussion of Empires political and legal theories was closely linked with the struggle to redefine Americas place in a changed world. The book was read as a diagnosis of our era and a call for liberatory action, while Michael Hardt was acclaimed as the next Jacques Derrida. Framing the debate about this landmark work, Empires New Clothes brings together leading scholars to make sense of Empires new vocabulary and tackle its claims head on. Does the authors vision accurately describe the power structure of todays world? Do the processes of "globalization" today represent a fundamental break from the past? Is the book really a "communist manifesto" for the new age? Empires New Clothes investigates these and other key issues, giving academics, students, and lay readers a handle on a work that touches the most vital themes of current political, social, and economic life.

Here’s Doug Henwood on Empire, incase your interested

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Commonwealth by Hardt and Negri

Commonwealth, last and richest of the Empire trilogy, is a powerful and ambitious reappropriation of the whole tradition of political theory for the Left. Clarifying Foucaults ambiguous notion of biopower, deepening the authors own proposal for the notion of multitude, it offers an exhilarating summa of the forms and possibilities of resistance today. It is a politically as well as an intellectually invigorating achievement.
--Fredric Jameson, Duke University

I approach this skeptically, but I’m due to reread the trilogy at some point.  I was introduced to Empire and Multitude by a few professors when I entered college a couple of years ago, but I was far more impressed by reading Marx, those from the Trotskyist tradition and the ‘humanist’ writing of the Praxis school and Marshall Berman.  That being said, I’m willing to give it another shot.  The series is too influential to be completely ignored.

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