The Two Cultures

by C. P. Snow, Stefan Collini (Introduction)

Overview

The notion that our society, its education system and its intellectual life, is characterised by a split between two cultures – the arts or humanities on one hand and the sciences on the other – has a long history. But it was C. P. Snow's Rede lecture of 1959 that brought it to prominence and began a public debate that is still raging in the media today. This fiftieth anniversary printing of The Two Cultures and its successor piece, A Second Look (in which Snow responded to the controversy four years later) features an introduction by Stefan Collini, charting the history and context of the debate, its implications and its afterlife. The importance of science and technology in policy run largely by non-scientists, the future for education and research, and the problem of fragmentation threatening hopes for a common culture are just some of the subjects discussed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107386969
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/26/2012
Series:	Canto Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	371 KB

Table of Contents

Introduction Stefan Collini; Preface to the second edition; Part I. The Rede Lecture, 1959: 1. The two cultures; 2. Intellectuals as natural luddites; 3. The scientific revolution; 4. The rich and the poor; Part II. The Two Cultures: A Second Look; Notes.

Editorial Reviews

"Stefan Collini's introduction and annotation of this new edition of the lecture not only help to contextualize and rehabilitate it but also bring to the surface ideas that have relevance today as academics and educationalists try to address the increasing division between science and the humanities."
Yvone Lysandrou, Morning Star

"Both the lecture itself and the controversy it spawned are complex phenomena, and in his editions of Snow’s lecture and of the most famous response to it, by the literary critic F. R. Leavis, Stefan Collini has carefully and skillfully disentangled the many strands. The tale he tells is instructive in many respects - and perhaps more important now than it was when Leavis gave his response, fifty years ago."
Alan Jacobs, Books and Culture

From the Publisher