Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975)

After reading Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West", young Arnold Toynbee who worked at the British Institute of International Affairs, thought he could do better and began this very ambitious book. It will eventually comprise ten volumes of text, and an Atlas, then a volume of "Reconsiderations". I love this work, for explains a great deal, though not everything. It is superior to the abridgements by Somerval and the appendices and excursions are a good part of the fun. So far as I know, show more some forty years later, it's still the best book about the inner workings of world civilization, and I've been reading and comparing other works to it all time since. Volume one introduces the civilizations covered though he had to add the Hittites later, and defines what a civilization is, and establishes the mechanism of "Challenge and Response" the core of his argument. Since I've read the whole thing three times, I admit to being a fan, in the best sense of the term.. show less

No "believer" really comprehends either existence or the historical record. No theologian really recovers from the trenchant observation that "If Christian Theology [replace with your pick of dogmas] is True, God is a Monster" [180]. And no devotee willing to die or kill in the name of religion really understands the voluntariness of Belief. [258] No Truth is influenced by fear.

Toynbee balks at passing judgment on the different living religions [298], while adhering to the principles show more espoused by a loving Christ in a world of suffering and the failure of all theological prophesies. show less

This is the last volume of argument in the initial publication of A study and covers serious topics for the value of the work. Published in 1954, during the Cold war, the tone is a bit grim. AJT discusses Renaissances of former civilizations by their related Civilizations. The energy that can be released by a renaissance is discussed as is possible pitfalls in the section labelled "The Consequences of Necromancy".
Then the book turns to "Law and Freedom in History" a very speculative section show more dealing with the problems of human affairs and the conflict with what might be seen to be "Laws of Nature" and whether or not those laws are implacable. AJT doesn't think so and applies some examples to the question.
We come at last to "The prospects of western Civilization", the most contentious part of the book. We are in trouble, mostly because of our current infatuation with 19th century concepts of Nationalism, and our very dangerous level of lethal technology, but AJT has hope, because...well we have to get up in the morning. He advances alternate possible approaches to world order in a post-nuclear age, and outlines some probable functions of a future world order. Heady stuff, and well worth a rereading in the hurly-burly of our present situation. His final appendix, a critique of Gibbon's observations on the fall of the Roman Empire in the west is a fun time. show less

This was the last volume of the Study published before WWII, which did cause a gap in the research, and perhaps a bit of a re-think of the process.
Toynbee begins this volume with a criterion of Disintegration and winds up the description of the Schism in the soul. The final stage is often marked by Archaism, he re-institution of earlier forms of political and artistic life even more rigidly than the original process, because the idea is to re-start and remove the errors that caused the show more civilizations' breakdown...continuing to dig the hole even deeper, in most cases.
So we come to the analysis of disintegration. There will be A Saviour with a sword, or the one with the time machine, or the one who is the philosopher king and the man who proves to be possibly God incarnate in a man. The disintegrating civilization will establish a rhythm between apparent revivals and further bouts of obvious destruction, until a portion of the civilization establishes a "Universal State" an empire easy to see , which is the final stage before the civilization loses the remaining shreds of its energy and the barbarians either arise from within, or pour across the frontiers. What happens next will be the contents of volume Seven.
The appendix in which Toynbee compares the evidence of the life of Jesus with other saviour figures throughout history, is a marvellous piece of scholarship. show less