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Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words

Jonty Claypole

Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words: Episode 3: The Culture Wars

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Culture Wars

The Culture Wars

BBC Four - Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words, The Culture Wars

Series featuring great minds of the 20th century using film from the BBC's archive.

Series featuring great minds of the 20th century using film from the BBC archive looks at key thinkers who have redefined the meaning of culture in the modern age.

Culture used to be so easy to define - it was ballet, opera, Shakespeare, Beethoven... But in the 20th century, these easy assumptions were torn apart by intellectuals who turned culture into a political weapon.

In a series which mines the BBC archive for footage of the great minds of the modern age - presenting these thinkers in their own words - this film looks at key thinkers, from FR Leavis to Stuart Hall, who have redefined the meaning of culture in the modern age. 

It's a story that takes in the unashamed elitism of Kenneth Clark in his triumphant series Civilisation; the battle to give culture to the people waged by Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart; and the advent of popular culture, spearheaded by hip young American academic Susan Sontag. From the battle over Lady Chatterley's Lover to the war against imperialism from Edward Said and CLR James, this is a thrilling intellectual journey that still resonates in all our lives today.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Series which looks at important thinkers through the broadcasts they made for the BBC.

Series which looks at important thinkers through the TV and radio broadcasts they made for the BBC. Includes rare and never-seen archive of Freud, Jung and Bertrand Russell.

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Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words

Episode 3: The Culture Wars

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