A postcolonialist reading of the deployment of the concept of culture in literature, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, cultural studies. It argues that modernity as understood in the Anglo-US episteme is structured around eurocentrism.

Introduction: Culture as Problem / 1. Culture/Race/Nature: Arnold, Tylor / 2. (Civil) Society/Nature: Hobbes, Locke, Macaulay / 3. Imagination/Imitation: Shelley, Hobbes, Macaulay, Kipling, Malinowski. / 4. Culture/s: Williams, Leavis, Spencer / 5. '"Race"/Cultures: Du Bois, Fletcher, Boas, Turner, "Jefferson" / Conclusion: Modernity, Eurocentrism, Postcoloniality / Bibliography / Index

Qadri Ismail is Associate Professor of English at the University of Minnesota.