The Idea of Culture

It is a little disconcerting, after reading the elegant and precise first chapter of Eagleton's overview of political, social and cultural concepts of culture, to find him stating at the outset of the second one: ""[I]t is hard to resist the conclusion that the word `culture' is both too broad and too narrow to be greatly useful."" But his evaluation proves accurate. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, theories and disciplines--from Raymond Williams's Marxist criticism to Ruskin's aesthetic theories, Richard Rorty's pragmatic political philosophy and Althusser's political commentary--Eagleton (Literary Theory; Myths of Power; etc.) surveys the far-ranging and often conflicting ways ""culture"" might be defined and used to interpret or interact with the material world. In the first two chapters, Eagleton delivers a clear but essentially academic pr cis of a complicated concept. Yet in his later chapters--on the culture wars, the tension between nature and culture and the possibilities for creating a common culture--he breaks out of a purely descriptive mode and into a provocative, entertaining one, noting, for example, that Americans use the word ""America"" far more than Danes use the word ""Denmark,"" commenting, ""this is what happens when your view of other countries is for the most part through a camera lens or from a bomber."" In this brief volume, Eagleton has produced both a thoughtful analysis of cultural theories as well as a shrewd, liberal dissection of current social and political trends. (Mar.) FYI: This is the first book in the Blackwell Manifestos series.