[to Yoshie] I haven't read _Empire_ yet -- are you suggesting I forego it and just re-read Thoreau? Same stuff, eh?
Gordon Fitch
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If you haven't re-read Thoreau yet (again), sure. I did and I found him a lot more interesting than I did in high school/college. I would say, he was actually inspiring.
I am midway through Empire and Charles Jannuzi was right---it's like I've read it all before somewhere (on lbo?).
What Empire really needs is a serious empirical and academic companion, more along the lines of GW Dommhoff's, Who Rules America? (Spectrum, 1967). Suggestions anybody?
I mean an airy cultural analysis of Empire is fine as alternative pop cult reading among converts, but at the end of the day, you need the empirical referents---particularly in political arguments. Since we are in deep Empire Denial mode, it's important to have something concrete to refer to---and a well written academic history would be nice to have as a reference.
I don't have any hope at all that such a book will get written, because these days it seems that corporate foundation money pumped into academia has insured there will be nothing but a continuous stream of neolib-capitalist-empire-apologies or celebrations forthcoming.
So Doug, Mike Perelman, how about it?
Chuck Grimes