The Two Cultures Controversy
Science, Literature and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain

This book recasts the notorious 'two cultures' controversy as an ideological conflict between competing visions of British society and culture.

Guy Ortolano (Author)

9781107402706, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 May 2011

308 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

Review of the hardback: 'In this deeply researched and closely argued book, Guy Ortolano … helps explain why what began as a rather modest Cambridge lecture became the focus of some of the sharpest and most significant debates of the postwar era.' Bruce J. Hunt, British Scholar

Ever since the scientist-turned-novelist C. P. Snow clashed with literary critic F. R. Leavis in the early 1960s, it has been a commonplace to lament that intellectual life is divided between 'two cultures', the arts and sciences. Yet why did a topic that had long been discussed inspire such ferocious controversy at this particular moment? This book answers that question by recasting this dispute as an ideological conflict between competing visions of Britain's past, present, and future. It then connects the controversy to simultaneous arguments about the mission of the university, the methodology of social history, the reasons for 'national decline', and the fate of the former empire. By excavating the political stakes of the 'two cultures' controversy, this book explains the workings of cultural politics during the 1960s more generally, while also revising the meaning of a term that continues to be evoked to this day.

Introduction
1. C. P. Snow and the technocratic liberalism
2. F. R. Leavis and the radical liberalism
3. A tale of two colleges
4. The making of English social history
5. The rise of national 'decline'
6. Post-colonial developments
7. The eclipse of the meritocratic moment
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1], Literature: history & criticism [DS]