Opinion: The historian who saw civilisations as living organisms
Arnold J Toynbee compared the rise and fall of civilisations to the living organisms that possess birth, growth decay and death
By KSS Seshan
A renowned British historian, philosopher of history, an author of scores of books, a research professor of international history, an academic who participated in the drafting of the Paris Peace Conference that brought curtains on World War I, rubbed shoulders with contemporary top political leaders in Europe, discussed with even Britain’s adversary, Hitler, Arnold J Toynbee was a man of many accomplishments. No other academician perhaps had such opportunities to participate and deliberate at crucial international gatherings after the Great War as Toynbee did.
As a leading specialist on international affairs from 1918 to 1950, his name was irrevocably connected with the post-World War I settlement of contentious political issues. For about 30 years, from 1929 to 1956, Toynbee was the Director of Chatham House in London during which period he produced a multi-volume, ‘Survey of International Affairs’, considered even today a Bible for international specialists in Britain.
Toynbee is best known for his magnum opus, ‘A Study of History’, a stupendous 12-volume work that is often compared to the ‘Decline of the West’ by Oswald Spengler and ‘Story of Civilisations’ by Will Durant. With his enormous output of research papers, articles, speeches and numerous books translated into several languages across the world, Toynbee was widely read and discussed in the 1940s and the 50s. His public lectures were held across the globe to the delight of the intellectual elite cutting across nations.
Arnold Joseph Toynbee was born in 1888 in London and his father, Harry Valpy Toynbee, was the Secretary of the Charity Organisation Society with great influence. His mother, Sarah Edith Marshall, was a graduate of Cambridge University at a time when higher education among women in Great Britain was rare. The famous 19th-century British Economic historian of his namesake, Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883) was a nephew of his grandfather. His sister Jocelyn Toynbee was an anthropologist and a well-known art -critic.
Toynbee was a brilliant student and studied at Winchester boarding school with a merit scholarship. He then went on to Oxford and studied classics at Balliol College. After graduation, Toynbee was appointed as a tutor in ancient history at his alma mater Balliol College, considered a great distinction in those days.
Post-World War I
With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Toynbee started working for the Intelligence Department of the British Foreign Office. He wrote several articles which served as propaganda leaflets for the Allies. His keen sense of history and mastery over international relations were well reflected in his writings.
After World War I, Toynbee was taken into the delegation that attended the Paris Peace Conference where he played a key role in drafting the Treaty of Sevres. Toynbee was present when a decision was taken for the establishment of an Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London and the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. Interestingly, Toynbee later served as the Director of Chatham House.
At the end of World War I, Toynbee returned to academics and in 1919 he was appointed Professor of Modern and Byzantine history at the King’s College in London. He worked as a Correspondent for the Manchester Guardian during the Greco-Turkish war. In 1925, Toynbee became a Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. He was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). In 1937, he was accorded membership of the National Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.
There were several academic honours for Toynbee both in the UK and in America. He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine on 17 March 1947, with an article describing his work as the most provocative of historical theory written in England since Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’.
While on a visit to Berlin in 1936 to address the Law Society, Toynbee was invited to a private interview with Adolf Hitler at the latter’s request. He endorsed Hitler’s message in a confidential memorandum for the British Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Toynbee remained active both in academics and international affairs till his death in 1975.
A Study of History
Though Toynbee was perhaps the world’s most read and discussed historian, his ‘Study of History’ brought him great fame. He examines in great detail the rise and fall of 26 civilisations in the course of human history. He theorised that they all rose responding successfully to challenges under the creative and elite leadership. His idea was to trace the development and decay of the world civilisations in the historical record, applying his model to each of these civilisations, describing the states through which they all pass — genesis, growth, time troubles, universal state and decay, and finally the disintegration. He thus compared the rise and fall of civilisations to the living organisms that possess birth, growth decay and death.
His ‘Withdrawal and Return’ theory also evoked a lot of enthusiasm among scholars. To substantiate his theory, he cites the example of Buddha, a prince who withdraws from society and after his Nirvana, comes back to preach with rejuvenated energy and wisdom. His ‘Challenge and Response’ theory regarding the growth of civilisations also became a great talking point among scholars.
But unlike Marx, Toynbee saw history as shaped by spiritual and religion but not by economic forces. For this single reason, he was not popular among historians of the later 20th century, the majority of whom saw economic forces at work in every historical process. He was also criticised for using myths and metaphors in his arguments.
‘A Study of History’ was a huge success both academically and commercially. In the US alone, more than 7,000 sets of the 10-volume (by then) edition were sold by 1955. But more successful was the abridgement of the ‘Study of History’ by DC Somervell in two volumes brought out in 1947. The abridgement sold three lakh copies in the US alone. Toynbee acknowledged the fact that the popularity of his ‘Study of History’ was due to Somervell’s abridgement. In India, by the 1960s many universities prescribed ‘A Study of History’ as a course.
In 1960, as a part of his lecture tour around the world, Toynbee was in New Delhi and delivered the Azad Memorial lecture on ‘India’s contribution to world Unity’. In Madras, now Chennai, his lecture was held in the ‘Raja Annamalai Chettiar Mandram’ in the Esplanade area.
(The author is a retired Professor of History, University of Hyderabad)