This is a book that many more people should read! Arnold Toynbee set out to write a book that could be used as a structure for continuing studies of how large human societies with consistent characteristics (civilizations) could be studied. He said at the beginning that this was a large task, and many examples would be needed to explain the assertions made. So, in the end it took 37 years to finish it. While writing the book, he changed some of the conclusions he had drawn in the earlier part of the book. that says something about his commitment to scholarship at the expense of ego.
Many specialists in smaller areas of study had their feathers ruffled by his classifications and his conclusions. the most obvious ruffling occurring when he classified Judaism as a "Fossil" civilization, surviving a very long time, and still maintaining exploration of concerns that had been with it for at least two thousand years. This obscured a great deal of the rest of the book in the minds of many reviewers.
However there is a great deal of the rest of the book, and William McNeill has made a good attempt at writing the life of a necessarily controversial figure in the sub-genre of world history. He is worthy of his subject.
In fact, McNeill's own eminence in the field of World history, leads one to think that the pendulum may be swinging back towards a Toynbeean view of the history of the planet. I hope so, as it always made sense to me. ( )

An interesting work, throughly researched, though not perhaps the final answer to the inner man.

3068 Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, by William H. McNeill (read 22 Apr 1998) Toynbee was born 14 April 1889 in London. He was brilliant in school, avoided service in World War One, and wrote A Study of History in 10 volumes. He had an interesting and troubled personal life, and this book spends much time on it. Toynbee is out of fashion now, and his theories and prophecies have not proven overly valid. After reading this biography I concluded that I need not read anything by him--the only thing I have read emanating from him is the abridgment of the first six volumes of a Study of History, which I finished reading Feb 17, 1952. ( )