Editing Matthew Arnold (section)

===Social criticism===
He was led on from literary criticism to a more general critique of the [[Zeitgeist|spirit of his age]]. Between 1867 and 1869 he wrote ''[[Culture and Anarchy]]'', famous for the term he popularised for the middle class of the English [[Victorian era]] population: "[[Philistinism|Philistines]]", a word which derives its [[philistinism|modern cultural meaning]] (in English—the German-language usage was well established) from him.  ''Culture and Anarchy'' is also famous for its popularisation of the phrase "[[sweetness and light]]", first coined by [[Jonathan Swift]].<ref>The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. [http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/sweetnessand.html Sweetness and light]. Houghton Mifflin Company.</ref>

In ''Culture and Anarchy'', Arnold identifies himself as a [[Liberal Party|Liberal]] and "a believer in culture" and takes up what historian Richard Bellamy calls the "broadly Gladstonian effort to transform the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] into a vehicle of political moralism."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Born |first1=Daniel |title=The Birth of Liberal Guilt in the English Novel: Charles Dickens to H.G. Wells |date=1995 |publisher=UNC Press Books |page=165}}</ref><ref name="Caufield">{{cite book |last1=Caufield |first1=James Walter |title=Overcoming Matthew Arnold: Ethics in Culture and Criticism |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |pages=3–7}}</ref> Arnold viewed with scepticism the plutocratic grasping in socioeconomic affairs, and engaged the questions which vexed many Victorian liberals on the nature of power and the state's role in moral guidance.<ref name="Malachuk">{{cite book |last1=Malachuk |first1=D. |title=Perfection, the State, and Victorian Liberalism |date=2005 |publisher=Springer |pages=87–88}}</ref> Arnold vigorously attacked the Nonconformists and the arrogance of "the great Philistine middle-class, the master force in our politics."<ref name="Rapple">{{cite book|author=Brendan A. Rapple|title=Matthew Arnold and English Education: The Poet's Pioneering Advocacy in Middle Class Instruction|year=2017|publisher=McFarland|pages=98–99}}</ref> The Philistines were "humdrum people, slaves to routine, enemies to light" who believed that England's greatness was due to her material wealth alone and took little interest in culture.<ref name="Rapple" /> Liberal education was essential, and by that Arnold meant a close reading and attachment to the cultural classics, coupled with critical reflection.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brendan A. Rapple|title=Matthew Arnold and English Education: The Poet's Pioneering Advocacy in Middle Class Instruction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KAuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT116|year=2017|publisher=McFarland|page=116|isbn=9781476663593}}</ref> Arnold saw the "experience" and "reflection" of Liberalism as naturally leading to the ethical end of "renouncement," as evoking the "best self" to suppress one's "ordinary self."<ref name="Caufield" /> Despite his quarrels with the Nonconformists, Arnold remained a loyal Liberal throughout his life, and in 1883, [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] awarded him an annual pension of 250 pounds "as a public recognition of service to the poetry and literature of England."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Machann |first1=C |title=Matthew Arnold: A Literary Life |date=1998 |publisher=Springer |page=19}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Bush |first1=Douglas |title=Matthew Arnold: A Survey of His Poetry and Prose |date=1971 |publisher=Springer |page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Richard |title=Arnold "at Full Stretch" |journal=Virginia Quarterly Review |date=2002 |volume=78 |issue=2 |url=https://www.vqronline.org/arnold-full-stretch}}</ref>

Many subsequent critics such as [[Edward Alexander (professor)|Edward Alexander]], [[Lionel Trilling]], [[George Scialabba]] and [[Russell Jacoby]] have emphasised the liberal character of Arnold's thought.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jacoby |first1=Russell |title=Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age |date=2005 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=67}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Edward |title=Matthew Arnold and John Stuart Mill |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |quote=I have tried to show to what a considerable extent each shared the convictions of the other; how much of a liberal Arnold was and how much of a humanist Mill was.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodden |first1=John |title=Lionel Trilling and the Critics |date=1999 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |pages=215–222}}</ref> [[Stuart Jones (historian)|Hugh Stuart Jones]] describes Arnold's work as a "liberal critique of Victorian liberalism" while Alan S. Kahan places Arnold's critique of middle-class philistinism, materialism, and mediocrity within the tradition of 'aristocratic liberalism' as exemplified by liberal thinkers such as [[John Stuart Mill]] and [[Alexis de Tocqueville]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Kate |title=Matthew Arnold |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=93}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kahan |first1=Alan S. |title=Arnold, Nietzsche and the Aristocratic Vision |journal=History of Political Thought |date=2012 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=125–143}}</ref>

Arnold's "want of logic and thoroughness of thought" as noted by [[John M. Robertson]] in ''Modern Humanists'' was an aspect of the inconsistency of which Arnold was accused.<ref>{{cite book |last=Robertson |first=John M. |title=Modern Humanists |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eccMAQAAIAAJ&q=Johnson++Modern+humanists|page=145 |publisher=S. Sonnenschein |year=1901 |quote=If, then, a man come to the criticism of life as Arnold did, with neither a faculty nor a training for logic ... it is impossible that he should escape frequent error or inconsistency ...}}</ref> Few of his ideas were his own, and he failed to reconcile the conflicting influences which moved him so strongly. "There are four people, in especial," he once wrote to [[Cardinal Newman]], "from whom I am conscious of having learnt—a very different thing from merely receiving a strong impression—learnt habits, methods, ruling ideas, which are constantly with me; and the four are—[[Goethe]], [[Wordsworth]], [[Sainte-Beuve]], and yourself." Dr. Arnold must be added; the son's fundamental likeness to the father was early pointed out by [[Algernon Charles Swinburne|Swinburne]], and was later attested by Matthew Arnold's grandson, Mr. Arnold Whitridge. Others such as [[Stefan Collini]] suggest that much of the criticism aimed at Arnold is based on "a convenient parody of what he is supposed to have stood for" rather than the genuine article.<ref name="Caufield" />