Publisher’s Blurb: “In their international bestseller Empire, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri presented a grand unified vision of a world in which the old forms of imperialism are no longer effective. But what of Empire in an age of “American empire”? Has fear become our permanent condition and democracy an impossible dream? Such pessimism is profoundly mistaken, the authors argue. Empire, by interconnecting more areas of life, is actually creating the possibility for a new kind of democracy, allowing different groups to form a multitude, with the power to forge a democratic alternative to the present world order. Exhilarating in its optimism and depth of insight, Multitude consolidates Hardt and Negri’s stature as two of the most important political philosophers at work in the world today.”
Reading/Discussion Schedule:
Every other Monday
SECTION 1 WAR
July 15th Preface: Life in Common and Section 1.1 Simplicissimus
Exemptions
Golem
The GLobla State of War
Biopower and Security
Legitimate Violence
Samuel Huntington, Geheimrat
July 29th 1.2 Counterinsurgencies
Birth of the New War
Revolution in Military Affairs
The Mercenary and the Patriot
Asymmetry and Full-Spectrum Dominance
August 12th 1.3 Resistance
The Primacy of Resistance
From the People’s Army to Guerrilla Warfare
Inventing Network Struggles
Swarm Intelligence
From Biopower to Biopolitical Production
SECTION 2 MULTITUDE
August 26th 2.1 Dangerous Classes
The Becoming Common of Labor
The Twilight of the Peasant World
Two Italians in India
The Wealth of the Poor (or, We Are the Poors!)
Demonic Multitudes: Dostoyevsky Reads the Bible
Excursus 1: Method: In Marx’s Footsteps
Death of the Dismal Science?
September 9th 2.2 De Corpore
Global Apartheid
A Trip to Davos
Big Government Is Back
Life on the Market
September 23rd 2.3 Traces of the Multitude
The Monstrosity of the Flesh
Invasion of the Monsters
Production of the Common
Beyond Private and Public
Carnival and Movement
Mobilization of the Common
Excursus 2: Organization: Multitude on the Left
SECTION 3 DEMOCRACY
October 7th 3.1 The Long March of Democracy
Crisis of Democracy in the Era of Armed Globalization
The Unfinished Democratic Project of Modernity
Debtors’ Rebellion
The Unrealized Democracy of Socialism
Revolt, Berlin
From Democratic Representation to GLobal Public Demands
White Overalls
October 21st 3.2 Global Demands for Democracy
Caheirs de doléances
Convergence in Seattle
Experiments in Global Reform
Back to the Eighteenth Century!
Excursus 3: Strategy: Geopolitics and New Alliances
November 4th 3.3 Democracy of the Multitude
Sovereignty and Democracy
May the Force Be with You
The New Science of Democracy: Madison and Lenin
The text is available in stores, online, in libraries or as a PDF available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iG_RZ7dldnXaYypM8kCVWn8EPtm9-eSR
Publisher’s Blurb: “In their international bestseller Empire, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri presented a grand unified vision of a world in which the old forms of imperialism are no longer effective. But what of Empire in an age of “American empire”? Has fear become our permanent condition and democracy an impossible dream? Such pessimism is profoundly mistaken, the authors argue. Empire, by interconnecting more areas of life, is actually creating the possibility for a new kind of democracy, allowing different groups to form a multitude, with the power to forge a democratic alternative to the present world order. Exhilarating in its optimism and depth of insight, Multitude consolidates Hardt and Negri’s stature as two of the most important political philosophers at work in the world today.”
Critical Theory Chicago 