"This powerful book is an impassioned attempt by one of our most distinguished critics to capture the feel of British life at the end of the century: its moods, attitudes and institutions. Hoggart presents a double argument, suggesting first that our dilemmas stem from a long slide towards relativism, as consumerism rather than 'authority' increasingly determines the texture of life, and secondly that for the past sixteen years Conservative governments have exploited these changes to their own ends." "Blunt and forthright, humorous and humane, he supports his themes by analysing particular forms of change - in education at all levels, in the arts, mass and popular culture, in broadcasting, in the use of language and in the uncertain base of 'Cultural Studies' themselves. But he also shows how some forces have worked against this monumental process: old style checks and balances, the resistance of class feeling, the curious survival of patronage, the uneasy sense of lost values. And in this uncertainty, he asks, what are intellectuals doing? - failing to speak."--BOOK JACKET.