This study of Walter Benjamin is a truly extraordinary piece of scholarship. It is extraordinary in a number of respects: in the depth if its insight, the range of its coverage, the acuteness of its judgments, the thoroughness of its research, the dramatic intensity of its presentation....The results of his meticulous exposition are illuminating for Benjamin's work as a whole....In fact, I think it can be safely said that this is, by far, the best extended study of Walter Benjamin yet written in English.