Empire's New Clothes ─ Reading Hardt and Negri

The publication of "Empire" last year created a sensation that spread from academia to the media to cocktail-party buzz. A book that causes such a "scholarly commotion" comes along "only once every decade or so" wrote the "New York Times," as the book's radical vision of imperial power in the new millennium sparked both histrionic condemnation and serious academic engagement.
After September 11 this discussion of "Empire's" political and legal theories was closely linked with the struggle to redefine America's 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, "The Empire's New Clothes" brings together leading scholars to make sense of "Empire's" new vocabulary and tackle its claims head on. Does the authors' vision accurately describe the power structure of today's 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?
"Empire's 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.

Paul Passavant is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Jodi Dean is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the author or editor of five books, including Aliens in America: Conspiracy Culture from Outerspace to Cyperspace (1997) and Cultural Studies and Political Theory (2000).