A review by joe_olipo
Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin

3.0

Although it contains the excellent essays, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and Theses on the Philosophy of History, this collection is subject to the weaknesses of most anthologies: We are made to glide along the surface of the text, which Arendt has paternalistically selected for us to peruse. Though Benjamin is not well-known for his long-form (and though this is a limitation of short books by definition) Illuminations would have done well to include a single more substantive selection from his longer work instead of padding itself with lightweight selections such as, Unpacking My Library.