The recent interest in the social and cultural politics of English language teaching (ELT), along with the rise of post-modernist thinking, has brought the very concept of culture under close scrutiny. Building on the premise that ELT tenets, practices, and materials are never neutral but are always involved in cultural politics, the present paper aims to present a brief overview of the important lines of development in the history of culture teaching in ELT within a broader socio-political context. With a purpose to trace the changes in the theoretical discourse that have occurred since the post-World War II years, this paper focuses on the perception of culture and culture teaching.