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Culture is a defining aspect of what it means to be human. Defining culture and pinpointing its role in our lives is not, however, so straightforward. Terry Eagleton, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics, is uniquely poised to take on the challenge. In this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, he explores how culture and our conceptualisations of it have evolved over the last two centuries--from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism's encroaches to present-day capitalism's most profitable export. Ranging over art and literature as well as philosophy and anthropology, and major but somewhat 'unfashionable' thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder and Edmund Burke as well as T.S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams and Oscar Wilde, Eagleton provides a cogent overview of culture set firmly in its historical and theoretical contexts, illuminating its collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, and the rise of and rule of the 'uncultured' masses. Eagleton also examines culture today, lambasting the commodification and co-option of a force that, properly understood, is a vital means for us to cultivate and enrich our social lives, and can even provide the impetus to transform civil society. -- Inside jacket flap.

Explored are the issues relating to interdisciplinary studies as they arise specifically in the study of culture. It is argued that as "disciplines themselves are unstable & shifting in character, so also is the notion of interdisciplinarity." The central issue that arises is whether the concepts, categories & methods of investigation employed in the understanding of new types of entities that have been brought into being by the activity of men are the same or radically different from those that are used effectively in the understanding of phenomena subsumed under the term "Nature." The world of culture of course presupposes the world of nature, as without it there would be no embodiment of meaning or its transmission from one being to another. But besides nature it also presupposes a creative being who comprehends meanings & values & tries to objectify them outside himself so that he can apprehend them in an objective manner & also communicate to other human beings through such embodied objectivation. The importance of culture in a particular tradition may therefore itself be a function of the importance that objectivation & embodiment enjoy in that culture. The relationship between man & culture is thus as diverse as the ways in which man himself may be conceived. Culture may thus be understood as arising from the dialectic between what one has created & the demand to understand what one has created -- a dialectic that may be said to arise from the very nature of self-consciousness itself. Beyond this, however, is the dialectic between knowledge & action combined with the situation that actions determined by knowledge do not distinguish between falsity & truth of the knowledge concerned, but rather depend more on the degrees to which the belief in their truth is entertained. There is in fact no clear-cut dichotomy between belief about reality & reality itself in the social sciences at least to the extent that it does seem to obtain in the natural sciences. Further, as belief relates to imagination & plays an integral role in the creation of sociocultural reality it follows that imagination is much more central to culture than most people have thought it to be. The central issues about cultural reality therefore seem always to cluster around self-consciousness which not only is enmeshed in the awareness of value but always expresses itself in alternative ways because it is reflexive in character. The understanding of culture therefore is a perpetual challenge to all those who believe in only one way of understanding the world, whether it be the empiricist or the idealist way of of understanding it. Modified AA.

Culture and civilisation -- Postmodern prejudices -- The social unconscious -- An apostle of culture -- From Herder to Hollywood -- Conclusion: the hubris of culture

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One: A Definition of Urban Culture -- Theories of the City -- Modern Adaptation of the Chicago School -- Urban Conflict Theory in the Modern Age -- Urban Culturalist Theory as a Modern Application -- Roots of Culture -- The Development of Urban Culture -- Chapter Two: The Urban Environment -- Housing in the Urban Landscape -- Race and Class -- Business and Jobs in the Urban Landscape -- Culture Production -- Chapter Three: Evolution of Culture in the City -- Institutionalized Religion -- Hierarchy and Class -- Currency -- Cultural Artifacts That Denote Class and Conspicuous Consumption -- The Industrial Revolution and Urban Planning -- The Growth of the Suburbs -- Urban Pressure and the Debate on Welfare -- Chapter Four: Music in the City -- The First Organized Music Makers -- Producing Musical Culture -- The Sociology of Musicianship -- Music Consumption -- Race and Class in Urban Music Production -- Music as a Cultural Artifact -- Urban Music Consumption -- Los Angeles, New York, and Nashville-The Triumvirate -- Style, Sound, and Cities -- Chapter Five: Art and Sculpture -- Ancient Greece -- The Roman Empire -- The Renaissance and Culture -- The Benefits of Urban Culture Production -- Urban Painting -- Theater and Literature -- Chapter Six: Architecture and Fashion -- Ancient Urban Architecture -- Modern Urban Architecture -- Housing Discrimination-Race and Class -- Seeking Solutions: Paris, France -- St. Louis, Missouri -- and Baltimore, Maryland -- Cities Built to Suit -- Fashion -- Public Health as an Impetus for Urban Culture Production -- Production of Urban Culture through Fashion -- Chapter Seven: Photography, Film, and Television -- How Photographs Built a City -- Tinsel Town -- Live Television to Studio City.

"This volume of original essays presents an overview of Popular Culture Studies as an ever-growing branch of American Studies while also reflecting the critical debates driving the field toward a more nuanced approach to contemporary culture more generally. Thus, many of the essays included take fresh perspectives on Black American culture, feminism, multiculturalism, and queer studies, among others, but they also provide critical updates on the global impact of U.S. American popular culture. 0If an understanding of U.S. Culture as Popular Culture in its national and international dimensions is one of the aims behind this publication, another is to conceive of cultural formations against the backdrop of shifting media environments. Placed alongside more traditional media such as literature and film, more recent phenomena including reality television, internet memes, and video games add considerable relevance to the critical appreciation of culture in the twenty-first century."