Walter Benjamin has progressed over the years from an obscure lesser member of the Frankfurt School to a widely read leading member of that obscure school. Aided by such as Hannah Arendt, who introduced him to a wider audience in her writings (and also to me), readers have come to appreciate Benjamin for the beauty of his writing as well as his sharp insight.

This volume, along with its companion, is an excellent introduction to the style and thought of this man who, while out of step with his times, possessed the insight to give those times an original critique.

Possessed of a lively style and free from the Marxist bagge that weighs down his Frankfurt School colleagues such as Adorno and Horkheimer (I think Benjamin owes much more to Heidegger than Marx), Benjamin will hook any reader who takes the time to spend an hour or two with this book. From here it's an easy step to purchase other Benjamin writings, a step I can almost guarantee.

While his work is as important as Barthes, Foucault, or Derrida, or any other critic of the 20th Century, Benjamin's work has a mystical quality, a kind of enchantment, that resonates much more than any other critic I have read. It is always human and sensitive, even despite his determinedly impersonal tone.

When I think of Benjamin, I think of Emerson's famous line about Hawthorne - that he was a greater man than any of his works betray. The integrity and character of Walter Benjamin shines through his works, and is an inspiration to anyone who takes literature seriously.

This first volume of Bejamin's complete works is very attractive and welcome. Some of my favorite essays are present, such as his essays on children's literature, and the nature of language. I eagerly await the other two volumes.

An excellent book, finally Banjamin on photography and cinema is available in english. Reading his essay on Chaplin is extremely illuminating concerning the question of the passage from silent film to sound film. His concept of critique, as well as his concept of "making history" lies in this text.

This book is as much about Marxist theory as it is about Rastafarianism, which isn't necessarily a bad thing unless you're not as interested in the former as in the latter. Rodney's objective is to couch the origins of the Rastafarian movement in that of proletariat class struggle. However, he provides little evidence to demonstrate a definitive link between the two. Rodney convincingly shows that Rasta developed as a means for the descendants of African slaves to positively identify with Africa and her people, as opposed to the white king of England. Insofar as this movement developed among blacks who constituted the mass of Jamaica's populace and who were working-farming poor - than Rasta may be considered a proletarian movement. However, Rodney provides no evidence that the early Rasta leaders consciously understood their struggle as a "class struggle" as that phrase is understood in the Marxist lexicon. The evidence suggests only that they sought to empower the mass of "sufferers" by seeking to positively identify with Africa and the African King - Haile Selassie I. The discussion of Rastafarianism in a political, social, economic and cultural context is so pervasive as to make one forget that practitioners consider Rastafari a religion. Indeed, Rodney provides no information on the central tenants, philosophy or rites of Rastafari as a religion. Rodney seeks to dismiss those Rasta who believe in the divinity of Selassie as misguided victims of Coptic propaganda. This conclusion reinforces Rodney's objective to posit Rastafari as a viable political movement for change and Rodney provides enough evidence to make this conclusion credible. Moreover, showing the political aspects of Rastafari allows those who may not necessarily believe in the divinity of Selassie to become involved in the movement. Despite the Marxist overtones and lack of religious information, the book still deserves a good rating. Independent of the Marxist analysis the book provides great factual and historical information about the resistance of Africans and their descendents against slavery, colonialism and neocolonialism in the Caribbean and credibly depicts Rasta as a form of resistance. Indeed, if you aren't seeking a better understanding of Rastafari as a religion than this book is well worth the money. In this vein of resistance Marcus Garvey is prominently featured. The book contains an excellent chapter on the role of reggae music in spreading the Rasta's culture of resistance and ends with a thought-provoking discussion of repatriation, ultimately concluding that Africans and their descendants must struggle to change their conditions wherever they find themselves.

History teaches a lot about the Black struggles here in the United States, but you hardly find any books about slavery and Black struggles in the Carribean and South America. Rasta and Resistance talks about the beginnings of the slave trade, slavery in Brazil, the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint L'Ouverture, Walter Rodney, Rastafarianism, ska and reggae music, and Black struggles in Great Britain. A great book for those wanting to learn more about the lost chapters of slavery and Black struggles.

I had the privilege of "awakening" under the masterful stewardship of Dr. Horace Campbell. He is no longer teaching in Tanzania, but spent many years cultivating and producing great thinkers in Zimbabwe, where I met him. Since then, he has continued his tenureship stateside returning to Syracuse University in 1996. Exposing yourself to an essay, article or book by Dr. Campbell will provide interesting and compelling realizations of African and Caribbean political histories.

This book is full of nonsense and distorts historic truth. I was told that the writer's relatives lives in Atlanta. If this is the case, a full investigation/background check needs to be administered. I wouldn't be surprised if the writer's relatives are connectioned with anti-American groups.

This book is ridiculous.

There just is not any other book that will tell you what Rodney does in this one. No European historian is willing to admit to all the outrages Europe has inflicted upon Africa over the past 500 years. No capitalist historian either. So here is Walter Rodney, a Guianese Marxist to tell this agonizing history while holding nothing back. He really makes you feel it, this is a very intense book, you don't want to read it before bedtime or you will not get to sleep. I think you need to buy it, because you can not read it fast straight through, not if you care about Africa and Africans, and if colonial exploitation and slavery get you mad. You're going to be gnashing your teeth with rage all the way through this infuriating recitation of rape, pillage, robbery, slavery and every kind of imaginable injustice. In the end you might want to say oh that Rodney what do you expect from a Marxist. OK try it. But now you have to tell us what he said that's not true. And you can't. It really was and is that bad. And everyone who is a part of European/ Western civilization needs to know it.

This is a well documented and logically presented African version, if you may, of the impact of slavery and colonialism on Africans at large. It is a must read for all Africans eager to know the history of the various empires, kingdoms and clans in that continent before contact with the Europeans.
As a leftist, Rodney often takes swipes at the capitalist system and given that he died in 1980 the rapid changes in the east west divide is lost on him. This in no way dilutes the core message, substantiated to a great degree, in the book. The evidence, and the logical manner of presentation, to show that Africa ended up in a lose/lose situation is quite compelling.
He did, in his astounding intellectual style, adduce evidence to seriously challenge some stereotypes about Africans prior to the arrival of the Europeans. From the book it is clear that Africans were engaged in a limited form of international trade with the Arabs; it is shown that there were forms of democratic practices commensurate with the level of development of the societies; it is revealed that African Kings and Chiefs are not the bloodhounds they are portrayed to be in the predominant accounts written by non-Africans.
Reading in between the lines in the book, it can be safely averred that the recurrent instability and wars ravaging the continent of Africa are after shocks of the blatant partition of Africa without giving any consideration to the cultural antecedents of the peoples being welded together. Events in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the iron curtain are pointers to the fact that fusing incompatibles is a recipe for chaos. This should be contrasted from individuals volunteering to form a new union.
Interestingly, Rodney also reveals that the question of reparation should not be treated like a pipedream. This is by way of evidence pointing to some big corporations of this age owing their foundation to profits from the abominable and shameful epoch called the slave trade.

A. K. O. ETUAZIM
MEXICO CITY

I would rate Me, Mop, And The Moondance Kid with 3 out of 5 stars. I liked this book because it had a good theme. It was also interesting, creative, exciting, and always kept me on the edge of my seat. I never wanted to put the book down. There are many other books similar to this book. You need to get this book and read it as soon as you can. If you enjoy reading books that have some mystery in them and are exciting this would be perfect for you. This book is about three kids named Mop, T.J., and The Moondance Kid. They all grew up together as orphans, but just recently T.J. and Moondance were adopted by the Jacksons. The academy that Mop is still at is closing down so if she doesn't get adopted before the Dominican Academy closes down she will have to move. In order to spend more time with Marla, who she wants to be adopted by, she joins the Elks. The Elks is a little league baseball team that T.J., Moondance, and some other kids play on, and guess who the coach is. Marla! Besides that problem they have to worry about beating the Eagles in the play-offs. Will Mop get adopted? Will the Elks beat the Eagles in the play-offs? To find out go and check out Me, Mop, and The Moondance Kid.