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
