Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri | Biography

Michael Hardt

Early Life and Influences

Michael Hardt was born in January 1960 in Bethesda, Maryland. His father was a Sovietologist who specialized in economics at the Library of Congress. Hardt attended Swarthmore College and graduated in 1983 with a major in engineering, having become interested in alternative energy sources during the energy crisis of the 1970s. It was only after graduating that he became interested in political theory and political work. A trip to Central America gave him a chance to experience politics outside of the United States. There, he worked for the Christian "Sanctuary Movement," which sheltered refugees in the United States. In 1990 he earned a doctorate in comparative literature at the University of Washington and traveled to Paris to write a dissertation on Italian politics during the 1970s. He worked on his dissertation under the guidance of Antonio Negri, an Italian political dissident and activist. In 1992 Hardt began teaching in the Italian department at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1994 he began teaching literature at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Writing Career

Hardt and Negri coauthored The Labor of Dionysus: A Critique of the State-form (1994), then went on to publish Empire in 2000, a book that has been translated into over 10 languages and been called "The Communist Manifesto of the 21st Century." In 2004 they published a sequel titled Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. A third book titled Commonwealth completed the trilogy in 2009. In 2012 they published an online pamphlet called Declaration that explores the political occupation demonstrations that occurred in 2011 to 2012 in places like Tahrir Square in Egypt and Zucotti Park in New York. In Assembly, which Hardt and Negri coauthored and published in 2017, they draw on the ideas from their trilogy to produce a new theoretical model for large-scale political movements. Hardt also has an extensive list of academic publications written solo or with other coauthors.

Antonio Negri

Early Life and Influences

Antonio Negri was born August 1, 1933, in Padua, Italy. His father was a revolutionary socialist who cofounded the Communist Party in Italy. He died when Negri was two years old. Negri learned about communism and political philosophy by reading his father's books and hearing it discussed in his house. However, fearing for the family's safety under the Fascist government, his mother discouraged his interest in politics and philosophy. Negri spent time on a kibbutz (collective agricultural community) in Israel, where he decided to become a communist after spending time with the Jewish communists who lived there. He went on to formally study philosophy and Marxism, becoming a professor at the University of Padua and also the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party in the late 1950s. In 1969 Negri cofounded an association called Potere Operaio ("Workers' Power") and later joined Autonomia Operaia ("Workers' Autonomy").

In 1978, a former Italian prime minister named Aldo Moro (1916–78) was kidnapped and later murdered. Negri was arrested a few months later and charged with masterminding the murder. He was exonerated of the kidnapping and murder charge. He was also accused of having an association with the left-wing terrorist organization Brigate Rosse ("Red Brigades"). In 1984 he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to 30 years in prison with an additional four years added on for being "morally responsible" for leftist violence of the 1960s and 70s. While in prison for four years, he was elected to the legislature as a representative of the Marxist Radical Party, which allowed him to go free. When his freedom was revoked a short while later Negri fled to France where he taught at the University of Paris 8-Vincennes and the Collège International de Philosophie. He also cofounded a journal, "Futur antérieur." In 1997 he voluntarily returned to Italy to complete his prison sentence, which was commuted in 2003.

Writing Career

In 2000 Negri published the book Empire with Michael Hardt. The success of the book led to two more books—Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (2004) and Commonwealth (2009). They also published a digital pamphlet together in 2012 called Declaration and another book called Assembly in 2017. Negri has also written numerous articles and books of his own. The success of Empire led to Negri and Hardt being established as two of the most influential political philosophers of the 21st century. Though at times considered controversial, they have both become well respected in the field. Empire became widely read outside of academic circles, inviting public debate and discussion across disciplines.