A Study of History, Vol. 1: Abridgement of Volumes I-VI by Arnold J. Toynbee (PDF)

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, “The reader now has at his command a uniform abridgement of the whole book, made by a clear mind that has not only mastered the contents but has entered into the writer’s outlook and purpose.”

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Of all the books published so far in this century, the one most assured of being read a hundred years from now is A Study of History.”–Clifton Fadiman”Somervell has performed his chosen task–a labor of love–extremely well….A remarkable achievement.”–The New York Times Book Review”Somervell’s abridgement is an amazingly accurate version of the original.”–New York Herald Tribune”If…[you] have time for only one book during this year–and the next and the next–Somervell’s abridgement of Toynbee’s Study of History should be that book.”–The Nation”A veritable masterpiece of erudition and one of the most suggestive, stimulating and inspiring studies of this age.”–Los Angeles Times From the Back Cover Of Somervell’s work, Toynbee wrote, ‘The reader now has at his command a uniform abridgement of the whole book, made by a clear mind that has not only mastered the contents but has entered into the writer’s outlook and purpose.’ About the Author The late Arnold Toynbee was Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs and Research Professor of International History at the University of London and author of numerous other books, including Mankind and Mother Earth: A Narrative History of the World.The late D.C. Somervell was a teacher at Tonbridge School in England. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I ordered this set of books from one of my favorite historians. This set explores causes of how civilizations come into being, and causes of their eventual demise. (Just like our own American experience happening now.)

⭐Everything arrived on time and as advertised

⭐A lot of back-list books that make it onto Kindle contain obvious typos, presumably because the OCR software gets confused when publishers scan them in. This edition is worse than most, and gets progressively worse as you go on. This is especially confusing because Toybee liked to sprinkle in foreign words and archaic spellings. It is ironic that, these days, the free public domain e-books tend to be well edited by volunteers, whereas with the ones you pay for, the publishers apparently can’t afford to hire a copy editor. This is the reason I didn’t give this edition 5 stars.The work itself is brilliant. This book has stimulated me more than any I’ve read in months (and I read about a book a week). I know that Toynbee’s theories are deprecated by modern historians, but they make sense to me. Anyway, I wonder how much of that prejudice is due to political and ideological leanings in most university social science departments, at least here in the US. Toynbee was unashamedly Christian and had some extremely disparaging things to say about Karl Marx. In my experience, that is enough to get you blackballed in some academic circles.The real reason to read Toynbee, though, is not his impact (or lack thereof) on the historical discipline. His real contribution has been on six decades of fiction, particularly speculative fiction. It is hard to overstate how much he influenced Isac Asimov, Arther C. Clarke, Pohl Anderson, and hundreds of others up to the present day. Now that I have just read Toynbee and received the ideas from the source, it gives me a new depth of appreciation for these authors.

⭐Hard to imagine grasping the drift of contemporary events without the overview provided by this Toynbee study. Toynbee worked on this 12 volume study from the mid-1920’s to the late 1940’s. His interest has been to gather together the recorded evidence of all the civilizations, of which he forms his study of the 20 plus civilations that he is able to identify. He admits that this is too few to reach scientific conclusions. He makes some interesting observations however: great civilizations are germinated from almost impossible challenges that are successfully mounted. Success of course produces new challenges. These challenges produce responses and on average he finds that there is a pattern of 3 such successful challenges before the civilization goes into decline. The downside of civilizations has its own peculiar patterns of decline, some of which have lasted for a 1000 years or more. This section may be of particular interest to students of contemporary events. Many are curious if western civilization is in decline as suggested by Oswald Spengler Decline of the West. Whether it is or not, the current political division concerning Making America Great Again is a revival of old nationalism that is resisting A One World View of history. By the way, for those who want a shorter study there is an abridge version of two volumes by Somervell also called A Study of History. As an appendix, this version has a section called “The Argument” that gives the impatient reader a summary of all of Toynbee’s points in just a few pages.

⭐If you are a fan of history,like me, you may find this a valuable overview that will put other readings in perspective. Being 70 years out of date has seen modern research date some of the details but Toynbee’s big picture remains intact. I suspect his spiritual bent(i.e. his thoughts on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations leading to the only basis for lasting change)may be a part of the reason his work is considered out of date running afoul of the group think by many of the current leading voices in the field. This work is a condensation of the extensive original volumes, but one heartily approved by Toynbee and perhaps superior to the original in that it is succinct and clarifies some of the terminology Toynbee uses to encapsulate his ideas. It comes with the major bonus of a short and well done review of major points at the end of the text. Having read this I feel I have a much better big picture view in my mind that has improved my understanding of subsequent readings in history. Recommended.

⭐Author is very well informed and there is also elements of philosophy and religious history within the book. Reader must really concentrate as text can involve moving from one time and/or geographical location to another often within one paragraph to the next. I followed the main thrust of the book and the general framework is as follows.Man forms civilisations as he rises to environmental challenges to particular geographical locations. Once a civilisation is formed societal institutions such as political, religious and legal establishments arise. This society can grow as creative elements, individually, or collectively, such as the Italians during their Renaissance can lead and evolve their societal culture by mimesis. Internal and/or external pressures can then influence the nature of a society. External pressures include assimilation to another polity or war being waged upon the said society by barbarian war lords. Internal pressures can be the penalisation of a group of peoples such as the Jewish (who subsequently underwent a Diaspora) or the Christians in Rome.Finally civilisations can then suffer disintegration as forces such as revolution (e.g. in France), political or social decay (such as in Rome or Egypt), or civil war (in Hellenic Greece) take place.I found the book to take the reader to a new depth in the study of history, and while heavy going in places it was accessible. I hope others can take as much from the book as I did

⭐Eye opening and superb look into the rise and fall of civilisations, the parallels with today’s western world are striking.

⭐Like the first volume it is a must for anyone who is interested in History

⭐No issues. Great Service.

⭐excellent

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