|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Arnold Toynbee
|
|
The name of two men of significance in the 19–20C. The elder (1852–83) was a social reformer who worked in the poor London district of *Whitechapel, where he was commemorated after his death in Toynbee Hall. His nephew (1889–1975) was a historian whose subject was Greece and Rome, but whose most challenging contribution was his massive 12-volume Study of History (1934–61); it reached a wide audience in the two-volume reduction by David Somervell (1946–57). Toynbee presents human history as a recurring cycle of growth and decay, and implies – more controversially – that some added spiritual dimension could break the mould and open the way to a higher civilization.
|
|
|
|