Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings by Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy (1869) is one of the most celebrated works of social criticism ever written. It has become an inescapable reference-point for all subsequent discussion of the relations between politics and culture, and it has exercised a profound influence both on conceptions of the distinctive nature of British society, and on ideas about education and the teaching of literature more generally. This edition establishes the authoritative text of this much-revised work, and places it alongside Arnold's three most important essays on political subjects - Democracy, Equality, and The Function of Criticism at the Present Time. The editor's substantial introduction situates these works in the context both of Arnold's life and other writings, and of nineteenth-century intellectual and political history. This edition also contains a chronology of Arnold's life, a bibliographical guide and full notes on the names, books, and historical events mentioned in the texts.
Matthew Arnold was born in Middlesex in 1822, the son of a headmaster of Rugby public school. He was educated at Winchester, Rugby and Oxford, becoming briefly a Fellow before leaving academia for work and travel followed by being appointed an inspector of schools, a post which informed many of his essays and in which he produced a series of trenchant educational reports championing his ideas on culture, society and education until his retirement in 1886. At the same time, he started publishing poetry in 1849, and produced a range of lyric, elegiac, narrative and dramatic verse over the next decade, of which The Scholar Gypsy and Dover Beach are the best-known items. In 1858 he was appointed to the chair of professor of poetry at Oxford, but published only one more volume of poetry himself, in 1867. He turned his attention instead to essays, first in literary criticism (criticism of vernacular literatures being then a new field) then society, politics and culture, and finally, in the 1870s, theology, though the essays frequently range across these disciplines with few separations. Culture and Anarchy, published in 1869, is considered his greatest single work. Matthew Arnold died in 1888.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780521377966 |
| ISBN 10 | 052137796X |
| Title | Arnold: 'Culture and Anarchy' and Other Writings |
| Author | Matthew Arnold |
| Series | Cambridge Texts In The History Of Political Thought |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 1993-02-18 |
| Number of pages | 282 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |