McKenzie Wark on Paolo Virno's "powerful argument for history and a passionate refutation of all who would deny it.”
Many writers – from Frances Fukuyama to Jean Baudrillard – would insist that history has ended. Virno’s book is not only a refutation of that thesis, it is also a meditation on a philosophy of time that might meet the challenges of being fully historical and materialist. I am not entirely sure he accomplishes that goal, or if it is even achievable. But he certainly offers a powerful challenge to those who would argue either that history is dead, or in a Heideggerian vein that history is oriented towards death.
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