The Complete Prose Works of Matthew Arnold: Volume V. Culture and Anarchy (Volume 5) - Hardcover

Arnold, Matthew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 047211655X ISBN 13: 9780472116553

Publisher: University of Michigan Press, 1965

Synopsis

Arnold argues that democracy without standards of perfection cannot survive

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'Culture and Anarchy' is one of the central texts of the western intellectual tradition and continues to shape thinking about the tasks and requirements of culture and civil society.

About the Author:

Matthew Arnold, a British poet and critic, wrote on the importance of culture in this work. He defined culture, famously, as "sweetness and light" - implying that culture represented everything good, everything not barbaric. The work is most important for the way it forwards the notion of an "organic" society - that is, a society that evolves slowly, that grows into maturity, that does not strive for sudden "advances" led by experts working all at once to implement great change. For anyone wondering about the relationship between modern conservatism and classical Liberalism, this is a decent place to start. "I am a Liberal," Arnold writes in the introduction, "yet I am a Liberal tempered by experience, reflection, and renouncement, and I am, above all, a believer in culture." If you wish to take an intellectual journey from Burke to Bork, Arnold must make up one leg of your trip.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 1965
• ISBN 10: 047211655X
• ISBN 13: 9780472116553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 586
• Editor: Super R. H.