A Study of History

A Study of History is the 12-volume magnum opus of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, finished in 1961. It is the longest written work ever composed in the English language. In it he traces the birth, growth and decay of some 21 to 23 major civilizations in the world. These are: Egyptian, Andean, Sinic, Minoan, Sumeric, Mayan , Indic, Hittite, Hellenic, Western, Orthodox Christian (Russia), Far Eastern (Korea/Japan), Orthodox Christian (main body), Far Eastern (main body), Iranic, Arabic, Hindu, Mexic, Yucatec, and Babylonic. There are four 'abortive civilisations' (Abortive Far Western Christian, Abortive Far Eastern Christian, Abortive Scandinavian , Abortive Syriac) and five 'arrested civilisations' (Polynesian, Eskimo, Nomadic, Ottoman, Spartan); thirty in all.

Toynbee applies his model to each of these civilizations, painstakingly detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.

Volumes

A Study of History
- Vol I: Introduction; The Geneses of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1934)
- Vol II: The Geneses of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1934)
- Vol III: The Growths of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1934)
- Vol IV: The Breakdowns of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1939)
- Vol V: The Disintegrations of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1939)
- Vol VI: The Disintegrations of Civilizations (Oxford University Press 1939)
- Vol VII: Universal States; Universal Churches (Oxford University Press 1954)
- Vol VIII: Heroic Ages; Contacts between Civilizations in Space (Oxford University Press 1954)
- Vol IX: Contacts between Civilizations in Time; Law and Freedom in History; The Prospects of the Western Civilization (Oxford University Press 1954)
- Vol X: The Inspirations of Historians; A Note on Chronology (Oxford University Press 1954)
- Vol XI: Historical Atlas and Gazetteer (Oxford University Press 1959)
- Vol XII: Reconsiderations (Oxford University Press 1961)
D. C. Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols I-VI, with a preface by Toynbee (Oxford University Press 1946)
D. C. Somervell, A Study of History: Abridgement of Vols I-X in one volume, with a new preface by Toynbee and new tables (Oxford University Press 1960)

Genesis

Toynbee argues that "self-determining" civilizations are born (out of more primitive societies), not due to racial or environmental factors, but as a response to challenges, such as hard country, new ground, blows and pressures from other civilizations, and penalizations. He argues that for civilizations to be born, the challenge must be a golden mean; that excessive challenge will crush the civilization, and too little challenge will cause it to stagnate.

He argues that civilizations continue to grow only when they meet one challenge only to be met by another. In 1939 Toynbee wrote 'the challenge of being called upon to create a political world-order, the framework for an economic world-order...now confronts our Modern Western society' ^*. He argues that civilizations develop in different ways due to their different environment and different approaches to the challenges they face. He argues that growth is driven by "Creative Minorities," find solutions to the challenges, which others then follow by example, called mimesis, i.e. mimeing.

Decay

He argues that the breakdown of civilizations is not caused by loss of control over the environment, over the human environment, or attacks from outside. Rather, it comes from the deterioration of the "Creative Minority," which eventually ceases to be creative and degenerates into merely a "Dominant Minority" (who forces the majority to obey without meriting obedience). He argues that creative minorities deteriorate due to a worship of their "former self," by which they become prideful, and fail to adequately address the next challenge they face.

Universal State

He argues that the ultimate sign a civilization has broken down is when the dominant minority forms a "Universal State," which stifles political creativity. He states:

First the Dominant Minority attempts to hold by force—against all right and reason—a position of inherited privilege which it has ceased to merit; and then the Proletariat repays injustice with resentment, fear with hate, and violence with violence when it executes its acts of secession. Yet the whole movement ends in positive acts of creation—and this on the part of all the actors in the tragedy of disintegration. The Dominant Minority creates a universal state, the Internal Proletariat a universal church, and the External Proletariat a bevy of barbarian war-bands.

He argues that, as civilizations decay, they form an "Internal Proletariat" and an "External Proletariat." The Internal protelariat is held in subjugation by the dominant minority inside the civilization, and grows bitter; the external proletariat exists outside the civilization in poverty and chaos, and grows envious. He argues that as civilizations decay, there is a "schism in the body social," whereby:

abandon and self-control together replace creativity, and
truancy and martyrdom together replace discipleship by the creative minority.

He argues that in this environment, people resort to archaism (idealization of the past), futurism (idealization of the future), detachment (removal of oneself from the realities of a decaying world), and transcendence (meeting the challenges of the decaying civilization with new insight, as a Prophet). He argues that those who Transcend during a period of social decay give birth to a new Church with new and stronger spiritual insights, around which a subsequent civilization may begin to form after the old has died.

Toynbee's use of the word 'church' refers to the collective spiritual bond of a common worship, or the same unity found in some kind of social order.

Predictions

It remains to be seen what will come of the four remaining civilizations of the 21st century: Western civilization, Islamic society, Hindu society, and the Far East. Toynbee argues two possibilities: they might all merge with Western Civilization, or Western civilization might develop a Universal State after its Time of Troubles, decay, and die.

Impact

Many concepts Toynbee discussed become part of the political vocabulary only decades later; here is a sampling of a few:

Great Society (1939)
régime change (1949)
Détente (1952)
malaise (1956).

External links

See "The life and death of civilizations" in Living the Vision

1934 books | History books | Modern Library 100 best non-fiction | Theories of history

Estudio de la Historia (Arnold J. Toynbee) | Studium historii | Постижение истории