Matthew Arnold
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Matthew Arnold [1] (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic, who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School.
Culture and Anarchy (1869)
Culture and Anarchy is a book by Matthew Arnold, first published in 1869.
Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s.
According to his view advanced in the book, "Culture [...] is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: "[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light [...]".
This passage is often misquoted as "[culture is] the best that has been thought and said".
