本书是本雅明的代表作，作者在本书上所耗费的心力，所寄托的希望，所装载的哲思，从谋篇至行文都有十足的体现。原本在文学史上不被人看重的巴洛克时代德意志悲苦剧，在他笔下却勾连起了西方自古典经中世纪而至他所处的二十世纪二十年代的文化史、美学史、宗教史。笔墨既驰骋古今，释义则不落窠臼。哲学式批评的角度在文学研究内部屡破藩篱，而在广义文化研究层面更让人耳目一新，及至今日，费解之名仍在，独创魅力不减。

全书共收入瓦尔特·本雅明于20世纪30年代写就的《摄影小史》（1931）、《机械复制时代的艺术作品》（1936）、《绘画与摄影》（1936）和《法国国家图书馆中国画展》（1938）4篇论文。
其中，《摄影小史》和《机械复制时代的艺术作品》均为本雅明享誉世界的佳作名篇。作为对摄影、电影的批评实践中的丰碑，它们不仅为人们理解这两个媒介提供了一种全新且富于启发的视角，对尼塞福尔·尼埃普斯（Nicéphore Niépce）、欧仁·阿特热（Eugène Atget）乃至奥古斯特·桑德（August Sander）这样的摄影先驱及他们的美学、技术成就做出了令人印象深刻的评判，也极为深入地讨论了摄影、电影与绘画之间纠缠不清、若即若离的关系。

This collection of the legendary thinker’s radio broadcasts brings together some of his most accessible and fascinating thinking
Walter Benjamin was fascinated by the impact of new technology on culture, an interest that extended beyond his renowned critical essays. From 1927 to ’33, he wrote and presented something in the region of eighty broadcasts using the new medium of radio. Radio Benjamin gathers the surviving transcripts, which appear here for the first time in English. This eclectic collection demonstrates the range of Benjamin’s thinking and his enthusiasm for popular sensibilities. His celebrated “Enlightenment for Children” youth programs, his plays, readings, book reviews, and fiction reveal Benjamin in a creative, rather than critical, mode. They flesh out ideas elucidated in his essays, some of which are also represented here, where they cover topics as varied as getting a raise and the history of natural disasters, subjects chosen for broad appeal and examined with passion and acuity.
Delightful and incisive, this is Walter Benjamin channeling his sophisticated thinking to a wide audience, allowing us to benefit from a new voice for one of the twentieth century’s most respected thinkers.