Arnold Toynbee’s Study of History, Part I: The Theory Outlined
E.E.Y. Hales outlines the theories of and challenges to the British socialist historian and philosopher.
When the first six volumes of Professor Toynbee’s Study of History appeared, between the years 1933 and 1939, they were freely spoken of as the most important attempt to express the meaning of history since the De Civitate Dei of St. Augustine.
A few months ago, we were given volumes 7 to 10, and (apart from a volume of maps and charts) the whole mighty endeavour, projected so long ago as the year 1921, has been carried through with a surprising measure of fidelity to the original design. There has been nothing like it in the English language, nor in any other language, if we except Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West — a work more limited in scope but, in an important sense, a forerunner of this study.
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