During his tragically short life, the philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin witnessed at first hand many of the historical events of the early 20th century and met many of the leading modernist artists, writers and poets. Introducing Walter Benjamin traces the influence of Benjamin on modern aesthetics and cultural history and explores his particular preoccupation with the tension between Marxism and Zionism, and between word and image in modern art. This is the ideal introduction to a key modern thinker.