Required Reading
“Toward the Critique of Violence” by Walter Benjamin (1921)
[The linked file is a special zine version I made for ROSA, of the recent translation by Julia Ng, which is the best one, along with a chronology at the beginning of major events in world history, the German revolution, the German student movement, and Benjamin’s immediate circumstances.]
Suggested Readings
Resources on the German Revolution:
The German Revolution by Pierre Broué
Witness to the German Revolution: Writings From Germany, 1923 by Victor Serge
The Second Revolution: The Council Movement in Berlin 1919-1920 by Axel Weipert
Resources and Reflections on Walter Benjamin and “Toward the Critique of Violence”
Walter Benjamin: A Critical Life by Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings
Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition, Ed. Peter Fenves and Julia Ng.
[This critical edition includes the same translation of the essay, by Julia Ng, along with a range of associated fragments by Walter Benjamin, and selections from less well known texts that Benjamin refers to in the essay. It also includes extensive scholarly footnotes to the essay that I did not include in my zine version.]
“The True Politician: Walter Benjamin’s Concept of the Political” by Uwe Steiner