Matthew Arnold’s essays compiled in Culture and Anarchy present an idyllic view of culture as the sum total of a society’s intellect and proactive accomplishments shared by all of its inhabitants. He then details the forces that pull a society toward this vision of culture or, conversely, toward anarchy. British actor Michael Maloney performs the essays, capturing Arnold’s tone of reprimand mixed with positivism. Maloney’s enthusiasm for the subject gives the listener the impression of Arnold, noted conversationalist, chatting up a room, lecturing on some of his impassioned views on the world he lived in, which still feel relevant today.

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