Culture and Society 1780-1950 - Softcover

Williams, Raymond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231057016 ISBN 13: 9780231057011

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1983

Synopsis

Culture and Society 1780-1950 Acknowledged as perhaps the masterpiece of materialist criticism in the English language, this omnibus ranges over British literary history from George Eliot to George Orwell to inquire about the complex ways economic reality shapes the imagination. Full description

About this title

Review:

The earliest ideas on culture, Mr. Williams claims, developed in opposition to the laissez-faire society of the political economists. As the ideas on culture took shape, on the one hand, they became identified with a 'whole way of life.' On the other hand... culture became a court of appeals where real values could be determined. Culture, thus separated from the whole society, was associated with the idea of perfection through the study of the arts... Mr. Williams contrasts the ideas of ' culture as art' and 'culture as a whole way of life, ' and commends the latter... the book should definitely be read by all those interested in English intellectual history.--M. S. Wilkins "Political Science Quarterly "

CULTURE AND SOCIETY is worth a library of literary and political tracts in that it digs into the ideological layers that envelop modern politics. Written from an independent Left standpoint, this critical history of the concept of culture in England from 1780 to 1950 is exactly to the point of contemporary discussions of value.--Harold Rosenberg

From the Back Cover:

The organizing principle of this book is the discovery that the idea of culture, and the word itself in its general modern uses, came into English thinking in the period which we commonly describe as that of the Industrial Revolution. The book is an attempt to show how and why this happened, and to follow the idea through to our own day.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0231057016
• ISBN 13: 9780231057011
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 363