A Study of History
by Arnold J. Toynbee, D.C Somervell · first published 1900
9mentions
1recommended by
9HN commenters
2011–2025first – last mentioned
11% recommend89% neutral
A masterful attempt to describe a universal history. Staggering depth of scholarship and breath of thought.
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Then D.C. Somervell's abridged version of Arnold Toynbee's Study of History. Don't worry that the original is controversial and you don't have to believe every word but read it for its passionate delivery and scope and that it should make you think.
on “The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Roots of Mycenae” ↗…scientific work stands on its own, if it's not a link that is part of a chain, it can't be a strong link. If it is a link, than it can also be a weak link, making science a "weak-link problem". In The Study of History, Lord Acton referd to "shining precepts which are the registered property of every school"[2]. > learn as much by writing as by reading; be not content with the best book; seek sidelights from the others;…
on “Science is a strong-link problem” ↗I found the quote I was looking for, it's in Arthur S. Iberal, Toward a General Science of Viable Systems (1972), and he's quoting Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History (1962). The passage concerns looking backwards rather than forwards, though the sentiment is similar: There is a strong tendency to depreciate works ... which are created by single mids, and the depreciation…
on “Could, should, might, shouldn’t – A taxonomy of futurists” ↗"Under the pre-1978 copyright law, you could now teach history and politics using most of Toynbee's A Study of History (vols. 7-10 were first published in 1954) or Henry Kissinger's A World Restored, or stage a modern adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's A Time to Love and A Time to Die for community theater." As far…
on “What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2011?” ↗…out. The entire passage beginning with: > "This implies that the new rulers are at first considered “barbarians” by comparison to the old ones..." was also expounded upon at length by Toynbee in "A Study of History". The 'creative minority' that is the heart and soul of most economic/political efforts (such as building out of the American industrial base in the 19th-20th centuries) later becomes the 'dominant minority'…
on “Steve Ballmer, Meet Ibn Khaldun” ↗One defenition of Civilizations as per historian Arnold Toynbee (I am quoting from Wikipedia page for his work "The Study of History") is as follows: "The 19 major civilizations, as Toynbee sees them, are: Egyptian, Andean, Sinic, Minoan, Sumerian, Mayan, Indic, Hittite, Hellenic, Western, Orthodox Christian (Russia), Far Eastern,…
on “Studying the demise of historic civilisations” ↗Glubb's theory of the arc of empires is strongly influenced by Toynbee's A Study of History, which was in turn informed by the 20th century zeitgeist of historicism (a belief in recurring patterns of history), initiated by Marx, refuted by Popper, but ultimately going back to Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah.…
on “The Fate of Empires (1978) [pdf]” ↗…some point but it's a bit of a tomb. So thought I'd approach it via the audio book first to get a better idea of the main concepts before reading it. And i'm currently reading Arnold J. Toynbee - A Study of History, which is a fascinating look at the rise and fall of civs. It adds a different point of view to Spenglers theory and work.
on “Vijayanagara – The Last Emperors of South India [audio]” ↗This was discussed shortly in: A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee Another anecdote that speaks to the sentiment of the beginning of the war is Britain’s initial deployment of troops. The troops were literally marching towards Germany with music and…
on “YouTube suspends The Hill for playing clip of Trump denying election results” ↗