Fire Alarm. Reading Walter Benjamin's "On the Concept of History"

Revolutionary critic of the philosophy of progress, nostalgic of the past yet dreaming of the future, romantic partisan of materialism.Walter Benjamin is in every sense of the word an "unclassifiable" philosopher. His last text was written in a state of urgency, as he attempted to escape the Gestapo in 1940, before finally committing suicide. "On the Concept of History" is one of the most important philosophical and political writings of the twentieth century, argues Michael Löwy in this scrupulous, clear and fascinating examination.

Löwy uses the concept of "elective affinity," the mutual attraction between two cultural figures, derived from the amorous encounter of two souls in Goethe's novel Elective Affinities. Looking in detail at Benjamin's celebrated but often mysterious text, and restoring the philosophical, theological and political context, Löwy strives to understand and highlight the complex relationship between redemption and revolution in Benjamin's philosophy of history.

"Sensitive to Benjamin's profound anxiety and the tragic vision of the world, Löwy traces the unfurling of this "revolutionary melancholia," which is haunted by the recurrence of disasters. . It is unusual to explore the depths of a text in this manner, but it is true that we have here the text of an exceptional thinker." - Le Monde

"A work of great humanist import." - L'Humanité

Michael Löwy is Research Director of Sociology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. His previous books include Redemption and Utopia: Liberation Judaism in Central Europe, Marxism in Latin America and The War of the Gods: Religion and Politics in Latin America.