2134/22109 Matthew Adams Matthew Adams To hell with culture: Fascism, rhetoric, and the war for democracy Loughborough University 2016 Rhetoric Fascism Democracy Second World War Post-war Britain Political Science not elsewhere classified 2016-07-26 10:35:20 Journal contribution https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/To_hell_with_culture_Fascism_rhetoric_and_the_war_for_democracy/9468593 To Hell With Culture was Herbert Read’s most concise exposition of his aesthetic politics, but it was a work moulded by the particular context in which he wrote. Starting life as a contribution to a series of pamphlets pondering the shape of Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War, Read drew on a deep reading of socialist intellectual history to plot a new, radical path for democracy. His text was a necessary utopia, presenting an outcry against the cultural barbarities of both the capitalist and totalitarian superpowers, and entering a battle of ideas to determine the shape of post-war Europe.