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English Literature / Unit 15   ENL 1428 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Culture and Anarchy

Captions available

The idea

Culture and Anarchy, collected in eighteen sixty-nine, defines culture as knowing "the best which has been thought and said" and spreading "sweetness and light." Arnold divided the classes into Barbarians, Philistines and Populace, and attacked the middle-class Philistines.

In practice

Sweetness and light; Philistines.

Where people slip

Philistine means the narrow middle class.

Your place on the trail

Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.

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