A Study of History by Arnold Joseph Toynbee

He has,it istrue,beenaccused of 'positivistichistoriography'-of applyingthe methodsof physicalscience to history andofbeing interested inthefacts ofhistory onlyinsofarastheyexemplify laws. Ontheotherhandheisnot,it wouldappear, whollyin thetraditionof Comte(andothers). AlthoughToynbeeinsistsuponthe importance of close studyofshortperiods, hehasin thisStudy departed froma century's fashion in historiography by rejectingboth nationalhistories, and the process of factcollecting underlying monographs.

Briskercontroversy will thereforerevolveabouthismethod.

Students mayor maynotagreewith hisinterpretation of particularincidentsand passages within this or that civilizationbut mostwill admit thepenetration andgraceof histreatment. Therecanbe no question of Toynbee's vasteruditioneventhoughthe omissionof footnotes in the abridgmentobscures in somemeasure the breadthand depthof hisreading.

The bookconcludes with an interestingexaminationof the psychology of a disintegrating society. By a comparativestudyof civilizations he attemptsto discover what bringsa civilization to birth, whatmakes it grow,whatcauses break-down, andwhatproduces disintegration. Theseheregards as the only intelligiblefieldsof historicalstudy,althoughashisargumentproceeds he is compelled to subsume them into onefield-the civilizedworld.

t'the outset hediscards crude ideas oftheunityofhistory and Darwinianconcepts of progress, andanalyses humanhistoryinto twenty-one civilizations(plusthreeabortiveandfivearrested examples).

Toynbee's concern in thisworkis with the species of humansocietywhichhe terms 'civilizations.' A

thodox Christian, andtheHellenic saves theaverage reader bewildering travel throughunfamiliarareas,it cancreatethe impression that Toynbeeis basinghis theory on thesethree civilizationsalone,and sometimes almost makeshim appear guilty of merelycategorical statements.

Howeverthe introductorysectionand the chapterentitled 'Schism in theSoul'havebeenmadedifficultby theprocess of compression andalthough the common omission of examples fromany civilizationexceptthe Western,the O The abridgment has beendone so skilfully and affectionatelythat it may seemodiousto criticizeit.

l with an important work which hasprovokedand will provoke muchdiscussion.

($5.00) MANYstudents of historywhofeltcompelled by lackof timeor othergoodreason reluctantlyto postpone the reading of Toynbee's Studyin theoriginalsixvolumes will welcome thisabridgment as a means of becoming acquaint London, New York, : Oxford University Press. Issuedunderthe auspices of the Royal Institute of,International Affairs.

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A Study of History by Arnold Joseph Toynbee