The notion that our society, its education system and its intellectual life, is characterized by a split between two cultures—the arts or humanities on one hand, and the sciences on the other—has a long history. The reissue of The Two Cultures and its successor piece, A Second Look (in which Snow responded to the controversy four years later), have a new introduction by Stefan Collini, charting the history and context of the debate, its implications and its afterlife.