OXFORD UNIVERSITY Press
Description
Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History has been acknowledged as one of the greatest achievements of modern scholarship. A ten-volume analysis of the rise and fall of human civilizations, it is a work of breath-taking breadth and vision. D.C. Somervell's abridgement, in two volumes, of this magnificent enterprise, preserves the method, atmosphere, texture, and, in many instances, the very words of the original. Originally published in 1947 and 1957, these two volumes are themselves a great historical achievement.Volume 1, which abridges the first six volumes of Toynbee's study, includes the Introduction, The Geneses of Civilizations, and The Disintegrations of Civilizations. Volume 2, an abridgement of Volumes VII-X, includes sections on Universal States, Universal churches, Heroic Ages, Contacts Between Civilizations in Space, Contacts Between Civilizations in Time, Law and Freedom in History, The Prospects of the Western Civilization, and the Conclusion.
Of Somervell's work, Toynbee wrote ... more
A Study of History
Abridgement of Volumes I-VI
Arnold J. Toynbee
Abridgement by D.C. Somervell
ISBN13: 9780195050806
ISBN10: 0195050800
Paperback,
640 pages 5-5/16 x 8;
Dec 1987, In Stock
Price: $24.95
Oxford University Press
A Study of History
Abridgement of Volumes VII-X
Arnold J. Toynbee
Abridgement by D.C. Somervell
ISBN13: 9780195050813
ISBN10: 0195050819
Paperback,
432 pages 5-5/16 x 8;
Dec 1987, In Stock
Price: $24.99
Oxford University Press
... One of my serendipitous discoveries was Toynbee's "A Study of History", describing the rise and fall of 23 civilizations in human history. (Well, the fall of 22, as the industrialized Western civilization could still be considered viable.) I am pretty sure that I did not read it in its original form, for the massive work consisted of twelve volumes published between 1934 and 1961. More probably, the book I borrowed at the library was the abridged version published in 1957 ...
... Arnold Toynbee’s multi-volume A Study of History is one of the major works of historical scholarship published in the twentieth century. The first volume was published in London in 1934, and subsequent volumes appeared periodically until the twelfth and final volume was published in London in 1961. A two-volume abridgement of volumes 1–10 was prepared by D. C. Somervell with Toynbee’s cooperation and published in 1947 (volume one) and 1957 (volume two) in London.
A Study of History in its original form is a huge work. The first ten volumes contain over six thousand pages and more than three million words. Somervell’s abridgement, containing only about one-sixth of the original, runs to over nine hundred pages. The size of the work is in proportion to the grandeur of Toynbee’s purpose, which is to analyze the genesis, growth, and fall of every human civilization ever known. In Toynbee’s analysis, this amounts to five living civilizations and sixteen extinct ones, as well as several that Toynbee defines as arrested civilizations.
Toynbee detects in the rise and fall of civilizations a recurring pattern, and it is the laws of history behind this pattern that he analyzes in A Study of History ...
... A Study of History is the 12-volume magnum opus of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, finished in 1961. In this immensely detailed and complex work, Toynbee traces the birth, growth and decay of some 21 to 23 major civilizations in the world. These are:
Egyptian, Andean, Sinic, Minoan, Sumerian, Mayan, Indic, Hittite, Hellenic, Western, Orthodox Christian (Russia), Far Eastern (Japan), Orthodox Christian (main body), Far Eastern (main body), Persian, Arabic, Hindu, Mexican, Yucatec, and Babylonic. There are four 'abortive civilizations' (Abortive Far Western Christian, Abortive Far Eastern Christian, Abortive Scandinavian, Abortive Syriac) and five 'arrested civilizations' (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 ...
Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life
by William H McNaill, William H McNeill
One of the most remarkable thinkers of this century, Arnold Toynbee won world-wide recognition as the author of the monumental ten-volume A Study of History. Its publication and phenomenal success brought him fame and the highest praise, as the reading public proclaimed him the most renowned scholar in the world. This thought-provoking, engaging study of Toynbee, written by one of today's most eminent historians, weaves together Toynee's intellectual accomplishments and the personal difficulties of his private life. Providing both an intimate portrait of a leading thinker and a judicious evaluation of his work and his legacy for the the ... more
East to West: A Journey Round the World
America and the World Revolution and Other Lectures.
Arnold J. Toynbee: Historian for an Age in Crisis (Crosscurrents/Modern Critiques)
Empire of the Inca. With a foreword by Arnold J. Toynbee. (The Civilization of the American Indian Series.)
Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life
Civilization on Trial
Cities on the Move
krize
...Study of History - Arnold Toynbee
OdpovědětVymazatToynbee selected 21 world civilizations in his study, of which 16 (according to the author) have perished.
He found out that only rarely an empire fell as a result of military defeat by another civilization.
He claims that the empires rather underwent a "cultural suicide" at some point of their history.
He basically gives five reasons for this cultural suicide, or in other words, breakdown of the empires.
1)
Residents have fallen into a state of depravity (in the sense of
moral freedom).
Toynbee describes this state as a state of mind in which people consciously
or unconsciously accept the idea that they don’t need to follow any "higher" law (Antinomismus).
In other words, people stopped believing in the need for morality and rather
began to follow their instincts.
2)
People succumbed to idleness, specifically so that they fled from the daily
problems to the distraction and entertainment at any cost.
3)
People have succumbed to the feeling that their effort does not make sense
and that they don’t have
control over their lives - they are rather a part of some impersonal machine.
4)
Toynbee speaks further on the overall feeling of selfloath arising from the moral depravity.
5)
The last thing, which led to the downfall of civilizations
is promiscuity is not only in the sexual sense, but rather the
unquestioning acceptance of almost anything, a kind of unquestioning tolerance
in religion, literature, language and customs.
Study of history - Arnold Toynbee
OdpovědětVymazatToynbee ve svém studiu vybral 21 světových civilizacích, z nichž 16 (podle autora) již zaniklo.
Zjistil, že jen zřídka kdy říše padly v důsledku vojenské porážky od jiné civilizace.
Tvrdí, že světové říše spíše v určitém mezníku své historie prodělaly "kulturní sebevraždu".
Uvádí v zásadě pět důvodů této kulturní sebevraždy nebo jinak řečeno rozkladu světových říší.
1. Obyvatelé upadli do stavu zpustlosti (ve smyslu mravní volnosti).
Toynbee charakterizuje tento stav, jako stav mysli, kdy lidé vědomě či
nevědomě přijímají názor, že se nemusí řídit žádným "vyšším" zákonem
(antinomismus). Jinak řečeno, lidé přestali věřit v potřebu morálky a
začali se spíše řídit svými pudy.
2. Lidé podlehli zahálce, konkrétně tak, že utíkali od dennodenních
problémů k rozptýlení a zábavě za každou cenu.
3. Lidé podlehli pocitu, že jejich úsilí nemá příliš smysl a že nemají
kontrolu nad svými životy - jsou spíše součástí jakési neosobní
mašinérie.
4. Toynbee hovoří dále o celkovém pocitu sebezhnusení, plynoucím z
morální zpustlosti.
5. Na konec charakterizuje poslední bod, který vedl k pádu civilizací,
a tím je promiskuita ne jen v sexuálním slova smyslu, ale spíše v
nekritickém přijímání téměř čehokoli, jakási nekritická tolerance, a
to v náboženství, literatuře, jazyce a zvycích.