Compared with the cultural criticism initiated by Thomas Carlyle and other British men of letters in the 19th Century that embodies their “transitional anxiety”, revealing their doubt and critique on the “progressive discourses” of mechanical civilization, cultural criticism in the 20th Century reflects a new “transitional anxiety” with new characteristics. Though the two world wars finished up the myth of linear social progress, the optimistic discourses like “scientific advance” and “welfare first” were still prevailing, which provides new targets and new context for the British post-war cultural criticism. The “Two Cultures” Debate between F. R. Leavis and C. P. Snow tend to be simplified as a controversy over literature and science, as critics mostly attend to their initial talks and neglect their later reflections and revisions. If we explore the event throughout, however, and put it in the context of cultural criticism in the post-war transitional period, we will find that rather than just a division of “science vs. literature”, it reveals two different ideas of culture. Borrowing the concept of culture from anthropology with an instrumental and utilitarian understanding of concept, Snow evaluated the Two Cultures in terms of quantity. Leavis, on the contrary, inherited the Romantic idea of culture as a counter force to resist the “external civilization” and therefore, in his mind, there was only “one culture”, the cultural tradition, which was the best of human accomplishments and indivisible.The opposite ideas of Leavis and Snow originated from their different “anxiety” over the historical transition of the post-war English society. Snow’s anxiety arose from his political and utilitarian considerations as he advocated the centrality of science in school education in order to protect the British interest against the Americans and Germans in scientific competition and the ideological rivalry of the Soviet Union. Leavis suffered from the truly cultural anxiety as he was frustrated by the erosion of English cultural tradition by the American commercial and consumption culture. He was worried that the great English tradition would decline and become a “minority culture” while “mass civilization” would become a major culture. Though they had different sources of anxiety, both entrusted education, university education in particular, with the mission of relieving their anxiety and tackling the cultural challenges they were faced with. Likewise, owing to different ideas of culture, they had different expectations of education. Snow understood education as being instrumental in producing talents for the service of the society; Leavis, by contrast, believed in the humanist education.To sum up, the Leavis-Snow Controversy reflects the change of ideas of culture in post-war Britain affected by scientism and technologico-Benthamism. The event and its aftermath have found echoes in the literary creation of some post-war and contemporary British writers, including Snow himself, David Lodge, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Ian McEwan, manifesting fruitful interactions between literature and culture. Moreover, the “Two Cultures” Debate originating in England has provoked people all over the world to reflect on the missions of culture and higher education ever since.