Arnold Toynbee Libri

Toynbee's analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations has been acknowledged as an achievement without parallel in modern scholarship. This abridgement, while reducing the work to one-sixth of its original size, preserves its method, atmosphere, texture, and for the most part, the author's very words.

A new edition revised and abridged by the author and Jane Caplan.This one-volume 576-page edition of A STUDY OF HISTORY puts the essence of the great work into easily accessible and most attractive form. (The original totals more than 7,000 pages.) Moreover, as Dr. Toynbee's foreword makes clear, the new book is more than an abridgment of the original. He has extensively redrafted, revised, and updated his history, to take note of new historical events and discoveries and to include his own 'reconsiderations' of his concepts. The new edition is also the first to be illustrated. There are more than 500 historical pictures, many reproduced in color and all selected by Dr. Toynbee with the assistance of Jane Caplan, his collaborator on the project. Miss Caplan has written the excellent captions for the pictures, which are closely coordinated with the text. Here, in sum, is a brilliant history and great scholarly work, in wonderfully readable form.

Arnold Toynbee's analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations has been acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. D.C. Somervell's abridgement of this monumental work is a great achievement in its own right. While reducing the work to one sixth of its original size, he has succeeded in preserving its method and character. The first volume of the abridgement presents Toynbee's philosophy of history as it appears in the first six volumes of the original work. This volume includes the Introduction; The Geneses of Civilizations; The Growth of Civilizations; The Breakdowns of Civilizations; and The Disintegrations of Civilizations. The second volume comprises volumes 7-10 of the original, including 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 Conclusion.

Arnold J Toynbee was a historian whose 12-volume A Study of History had a huge impact on the thinking of his day. This epic, multi-volume work offered a grand synthesis of world history from the global perspective of the rise and fall of civilizations, rather than concentrating on the history of nation-states or of ethnic groups. For Time magazine Toynbee was 'an international sage' and certainly in the same bracket as 'Einstein, Schweitzer or Bertrand Russell'. Daisaku Ikeda is a figure of global stature, the spiritual leader of a worldwide lay Buddhist organisation devoted to the promotion of education, culture and peace. Between 1971 and 1974 Toynbee and Ikeda discussed many of the vital issues which confronted their societies in the early 1970s, all of which remain current and significant. Indeed, topics such as the problems of pollution, dwindling natural resources, conflict and war, the role of religion, and population growth, are even more pressing than they were thirty years ago. In this volume - which still reads as freshly as it did when it was first published, and which is now reissued for a new generation of readers - the inspiring challenge issued by both men is framed as follows: will humankind choose to salvage its destiny by a revolution in thinking and morals? Or will disaster ensue if it pursues its present course towards self-destruction and the despoliation of the environment? While recognising that our survival is threatened by the imbalance between human immaturity and technological achievement, the optimistic message of this classic Dialogue is that man-made evils have a man-made cure.

A vivid and harrowing account of the atrocities committed by occupying German forces in France during World War I. Draws on eyewitness testimony and documentary evidence to paint a detailed picture of the horrors endured by French civilians and the resistance movement. A powerful indictment of war and tyranny.