16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An enjoyable but uncritical exposition, October 21, 2007
This review is from: Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History" (Hardcover)
I bought this book without knowing anything about it except that it is a book-length commentary on Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History". The Amazon page does not allow one to search inside the book or even to see the table of contents. The editorial reviews consist of two short and uninformative but admiring sentences. There is nothing here but the title to indicate the content of the book.
The book consists of an Introduction, two chapters or sections (one about a hundred pages, the other about ten pages), notes, and an index. The Introduction is titled, "Introduction: Romanticism, Messianism and Marxism in Walter Benjamin's Philosophy of History". The first chapter is titled, "A Reading of Walter Benjamin's 'Theses "On the Concept of History"'." The second chapter is titled, "The Opening-up of History". There are more than a dozen black and white illustrations and photos scattered throughout the text.
The introductory material situates Benjamin's text in its historical and intellectual context. There follows a thesis-by-thesis commentary. The author brings out much of value in the theses, and while he takes issue with other commentators on Benjamin, he never becomes critical of Benjamin himself, in either a global or a local sense, i.e., he doesn't criticize Benjamin's overall project or any of Benjamin's particular claims in the theses. One suspects that the author has spent too much time in the company of others who closely mirror his views, and has not had to defend his general outlook in the face of hostile criticism. The author employs incautious superlatives, such as calling Benjamin's theses, "...one of the most important philosophical and political texts of the twentieth century." (p.4)
The book is nicely prepared for publication and nicely bound. The translation is smooth and seamless, and never "feels" like a translated text.
The "star" system of rating a book is highly unsatisfactory. I gave the book three stars for reasons as mixed as Benjamin's motives in writing his theses. If one is (as I was) simply looking for an insightful exposition of the theses on history, then the book deserves five stars. If one is looking for a critical appraisal of Benjamin's conception of history, then the book deserves a single star. I am happy to have the book in my library as a reference, and I imagine I will consult it with some frequency.
Those seeking more on Benjamin's theses might look into Volume 4 of Benjamin's Selected Writings published by Harvard. This includes about seven pages of notes and material not included in the theses, taken from Benjamin's working notes published in toto in his Gesammelte Schriften.
J. N. Nielsen
Political Economy of Globalization: One Hundred Theses on World Trade
Variations on the Theme of Life
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Redemption and Revolution in Benjamin's Philosophy of History, February 11, 2011
This review is from: Fire Alarm: Reading Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History" (Hardcover)
In Fire Alarm Malcolm Lowy reads Benjamin's "On the Concept of History". This is a detailed and exhaustive and profound reading of the celebrated essay which Benjamin wrote in a state of urgency as he attempted to escape the Gestapo in 1940 before he chose to commit suicide rather than resign himself to the hands of the Nazi. Michael Lowy argues that "On the Concept of History" is on eof the most important philosophical and political essay of the 20th century. The critic's exegesis of this mystifying text limns its philosophical, theological and political context, highlighting the complex relationship between redemption and revolution which the text compresses. Lowy touches and explains in detail each thesis while outlining the entire philosohical corpus of Benjamin's thought within the composition itself. A very valuable addition to Benjamin scholarship and one that does not shy away from the more difficult questions, nor the more mystical which the essay evokes. A Judeo-materialist reading of Benjamin that is clearly in keeping with the spirit of Benjamin's prophetic vision, which is not to say that it is theological or Marxist but philosophical and poetic through and through.
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