ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most famous statement, and protracted defence, of the high-culture position was that of Matthew Arnold in his aptly titled Culture and Anarchy. Put simply Arnold saw culture and anarchy as enemies, with the former the only really reliable protection against the latter. Arnold is concerned with a sort of social improvement such that he writes of ‘canvassing’ on behalf of Culture, as if it were a parliamentary candidate and that he recommends Culture as ‘the great help out of our present difficulties’. He goes on to the clearest statement yet of the case for the defence of the high-culture position:
culture is a pursuit of our ‘total perfection’
culture is concerned with ‘the best which has been thought and said in the world’ and
culture is ‘turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits’.
