History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.
It was interesting, not only for the information about Negri, but also as a psychological case study (of the author of the piece). Over at Charlotte Street, I saw a link to a page petitioning the Italian government to clear Negri's name -- "the old terrorist" has never even been accused of any concrete acts of terrorism, although Hari is apparently in possession of some information relating to some heinous crimes.
Well done, Adam! It was an interesting article, tho, wasn't it?
Thanks for directing traffic my way.
Shorter Johann Hari:
"Negri is stuck in the past, although the body of work that is making him famous now is all about how radically the world has changed; in order to get him to think about how the world has radically changed since his early days of being a terrorist (against what was basically a police state, so I guess that's... bad?), I'm going to ask him about virtually nothing but his past -- and he'll show he's stuck in the past by not talking about it. Then I'll criticize him for being an academic and writing like one."
Done and done! Dismissed!