The refreshingly transdisciplinary essays in this timely volume make an impressive case for the Benjaminian concept of threshold experiences as a key paradigm for the 21st century. Ranging from European cultural and philosophical heritage to its political reality, they encourage us to embrace the complementarity in opposites.

Ingo Cornils, University of Leeds

The threshold has long been recognized as a central organizing concept and figure in the work of Walter Benjamin and in the broad array of work in the humanities influenced by him. Between Urban Topographies and Political Spaces represents an important contribution to our understanding of this problem. Its essays focus on a number of key issues within the broader topic of space and liminality, emphasizing not just the physical spaces explored by Benjamin himself (Naples, Paris), but the threshhold spaces between genres, disciplines, concepts, and the sexes. A particularly intriguing opening section intervenes in contemporary debates on the idea of Europe, using Benjamin’s ideas as a launch pad—and hammer. This volume is a signal scholarly achievement.

Michael W. Jennings, Princeton University