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 conceptualizations 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 over 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.

[英] 特里•伊格尔顿（Terry Eagleton）

英国学者、批评家，国际文学理论界的领军人物、著名公共知识分子。在学术界，伊格尔顿是一位极富创造力和批判性的左派理论家，他最驰名的作品《文学理论导论》，是全球范围内的文学入门必读经典。目前，他是英国兰开斯特大学英语文学的特聘教授。

几十年来，他的作品是一代人文读者的乐趣和灵感之源。由于文才广博、作品丰富，有人说伊格尔顿生涯中“写了三辈子的作品”。他凭借《文学理论导论》《人生的意义》《文学阅读指南》几本极具感染力的通俗读物，成为全球人文学生乃至广大年轻读者的导师。其更为严肃的理论著作，如《马克思为什么是对的》《理论之后》《后现代主义的幻象》《审美意识形态》等，在文学和文化研究界也具有相当的影响力。