Having met in the late 1920s in Germany, Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht–both independently minded Marxists with a deep understanding of and passionate commitment to the emancipatory potential of cultural practices–discussed, argued, and corresponded on topics as varied as Fascism and the work of Franz Kafka. In Understanding Brecht, Benjamin’s most sensitive and probing writing on the dramatic and poetic work of his friend and tutor is collected. Alongside his fascinating analyses of Brecht’s “epic theatre” and commentaries on his verse, we find Benjamin’s masterful essay “The Author as Producer, ” as well as an extract from his diaries that recounts the intense conversations on aesthetics and politics held between the two.