A Study of History

Most people who have reached middle age can recall two or three books that have guided and illuminated their study and observation of life and history. Such books are not often produced today, because, as Professor Toynbee shows in his witty comparison of historical and industrial production they are discouraged by the turn that the writing of history has taken. It is safe to say that there can be few people for whom the reading of Professor Toynbee’s work will not be a deeply significant event. It would have struck the imagination of any age by its originality, its range, its learning, and its power, but it has a special interest for a time like ours, when the discomfort men feel on finding their world upside down drives them to one superficial and restless interpretation after another. For here the reader is offered not some clever and arresting adaptation of the latest novelty in psychology or biology to politics but a large, measured, tranquil, and philosophical examination of history by a writer who adds to the rare intellectual equipment needed for so Herculean a task the advantage of experience of public life and contact with foreign scholars and politicians.
Reviews:
“Lord Acton speaks somewhere of histories which have changed men’s outlook on society and human life. Such histories are few; but it is difficult to lay down Professor Toynbee’s book without feeling that posterity will place it among them. Its immense range, its extraordinary power of synthesis and generalization, its humanity and literary distinction, would be sufficient to set it in a class by itself. It will not only bring illumination to its readers, but will modify the conception of their ole held by future historians.” – Excerpt from the Review by R. H. Tawney in International Affairs, published by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Volume 14, No. 1, pp. 117-120
“This is not a Book… This is a Cathedral… It’s well cut corner stones are great ideas developed by the last masters of history of our times. And the master of them all is as cautious as an engineer, as talented as any genius and – especially – as creative as some great lawyers and most great architects are about their lifetime’s work. Montaigne once wrote something like “”My work of art is my life””. After reading Toynbee, one feels almost compelled to say just the opposite: Well, it may be only a book – even one originally published in twelve volumes – but this is his work of art.” — Extract from a Review by Dr. Dan Waniek, MD