Modern Culture

Description

What do we mean by 'culture'? This word, purloined by journalists to denote every kind of collective habit, lies at the centre of contemporary debates about the past and future of society. In this thought-provoking book, Roger Scruton argues for the religious origin of culture in all its forms, and mounts a defence of the 'high culture' of our civilization against its radical and 'deconstructionist' critics. He offers a theory of pop culture, a panegyric to Baudelaire, a few reasons why Wagner is just as great as his critics fear him to be, and a raspberry to Cool Britannia. A must for all people who are fed up to their tightly clenched front teeth with Derrida, Foucault, Oasis and Richard Rogers. Title Page......Page 2 Dedication......Page 3 Contents......Page 4 Preface......Page 5 Preface to the Second Edition......Page 7 1. What Is Culture?......Page 8 2. Culture and Cult......Page 12 3. Enlightenment......Page 26 4. The Aesthetic Gaze......Page 32 5. Romanticism......Page 46 6. Fantasy, Imagination and the Salesman......Page 53 7. Modernism......Page 64 8. Avant-garde and Kitsch......Page 78 9. Surface and Surfeit......Page 87 10. Yoofanasia......Page 94 11. Idle Hands......Page 109 12. The Devil’s Work......Page 119 13. Conclusions......Page 130 Quite Interesting Bibliography......Page 139 Footnotes......Page 147 eCopyright......Page 152