The Value of Culture is a five part BBC radio series by Melvyn Bragg (which can be  downloaded as a podcast) which explores the modern concept of 'culture' from its roots in mid-19th Century Britain, specifically Matthew Arnold's  Culture and Anarchy and Edward Burnett Tylor's  Primitive Culture ( vol. 2), and exploring the discourse and uses of the concept until the present day. There are five episodes, each a little over forty minutes long, focusing in turn on  Arnold and the roots of the concept of culture,  Tylor and the anthropological conception of culture,  C. P. Snow and the 'Two Cultures' debate,  mass culture and culture studies, and then ending with a  debate on the value of culture today.

Fascinating and essential for anyone who thinks they know what culture is, or what it is for.