Harvard University’s Amabel B. James Professor of History Peter E. Gordon will speak on his new book, Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver (Yale University Press, 2026), at Boston College on April 14 at 5 p.m. in Devlin 101. Gordon, who specializes in modern European intellectual history from the late 18th to the late 20th century, is also Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Department of Government, and Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. A frequent contributor to periodicals such as The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Review of Books, The London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books, Gordon has published major works on Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Jürgen Habermas, and Theodor W. Adorno. The subject of his latest book, Walter Benjamin (1892–1940), is widely considered one of the most creative cultural critics of the 20th century. Esteemed for his literary acumen and capacious imagination, Benjamin developed a unique style of criticism―his friend Hannah Arendt called it pearl-diving―that sought out fragments of redemption in the ruins of bourgeois civilization. In his book, Gordon tells Benjamin’s story in a vivid and poetic style, inviting the reader to look beyond the image of Benjamin as a tragic figure of German-Jewish history and portraying him as a complex personality of unique and multifaceted gifts. The event is cosponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and the Political Science, German Studies, and Philosophy departments.