Better to wonder if ten thousand angels
Could waltz on the head of a pin
And not feel crowded than to wonder if now's the time
for the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
To teach the Serbs a lesson they'll never forget
For shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

Carl Dennis, 'World History'[1]

The cover of Multitude invites bookshop browsers not just to read it, but to 'Join the many. Join the Empowered.' The missionary tone is underlined by Naomi Klein's blurb - 'inspiring' - and a frisson added by the book's appearance: a brown paper wrapping like those used to discourage porn thieves and customs inspectors. Trembling fingers that go further are reminded that this book succeeds Empire (2000), by the same authors, which provided a picture of the global imperium supposed to have followed the Cold War - not the American Empire, but a wider settlement of which US supremacy was just one part. This imperium has generated global resistance, which all purchasers are now invited to approve, in the name of democracy.

LRB 5 May 2005 | PDF Download