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Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life
Arnold Toynbee was one of the most remarkable thinkers of the 20th century, a man of far-reaching imagination, extraordinary erudition, and an infinite capacity for hard work. At the height of his fame, he was the most renowned scholar in the world, acclaimed as the author of the monumental,
10-volume A Study of History . Indeed, such was the regard for his Study that Time magazine, in a cover article on Toynbee published in 1947, declared that he had "found history Ptolemaic and left it Copernican."
In Arnold A Life , William H. McNeill weaves together Toynbee's intellectual accomplishments and the personal difficulties of his private life, providing both an intimate portrait of a leading thinker and a judicious evaluation of Toynbee's work and his legacy for the study of history.
McNeill illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of A Study of History as well as the countless other works penned by this prolific writer, examining the responses of other historians (including the devastating attack mounted by Hugh Trevor Roper) and Toynbee's attempts to modify his Study to answer
these criticisms. And McNeill also examines Toynbee's tormented personal life, including his troubled marriage to Rosalind Murray (the daughter of Gilbert Murray), and the suicide of his son Anthony. What emerges is both poignant and thought-provoking, a biography and a commentary about how history
is written and how it should be pursued.
William McNeill is one of America's most eminent historians, the winner of a National Book Award in 1964 for The Rise of the West , which The New York Times Book Review called "the most learned...the most intelligent...the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and
explain the whole history of the world." In this sympathetic portrait of a life both triumphant and troubled, McNeill brings his skills to bear on one of the greatest figures in his field, illuminating a career of rare accomplishment.
10-volume A Study of History . Indeed, such was the regard for his Study that Time magazine, in a cover article on Toynbee published in 1947, declared that he had "found history Ptolemaic and left it Copernican."
In Arnold A Life , William H. McNeill weaves together Toynbee's intellectual accomplishments and the personal difficulties of his private life, providing both an intimate portrait of a leading thinker and a judicious evaluation of Toynbee's work and his legacy for the study of history.
McNeill illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of A Study of History as well as the countless other works penned by this prolific writer, examining the responses of other historians (including the devastating attack mounted by Hugh Trevor Roper) and Toynbee's attempts to modify his Study to answer
these criticisms. And McNeill also examines Toynbee's tormented personal life, including his troubled marriage to Rosalind Murray (the daughter of Gilbert Murray), and the suicide of his son Anthony. What emerges is both poignant and thought-provoking, a biography and a commentary about how history
is written and how it should be pursued.
William McNeill is one of America's most eminent historians, the winner of a National Book Award in 1964 for The Rise of the West , which The New York Times Book Review called "the most learned...the most intelligent...the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and
explain the whole history of the world." In this sympathetic portrait of a life both triumphant and troubled, McNeill brings his skills to bear on one of the greatest figures in his field, illuminating a career of rare accomplishment.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
William H. McNeill
124 books216 followersWilliam Hardy McNeill was a historian and author, noted for his argument that contact and exchange among civilizations is what drives human history forward, first postulated in The Rise of the West (1963). He was the Robert A. Milikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1947 until his retirement in 1987.
In addition to winning the U.S. National Book Award in History and Biography in 1964 for The Rise of the West, McNeill received several other awards and honors. In 1985 he served as president of the American Historical Association.
In 1996, McNeill won the prestigious Erasmus Prize, which the Crown Prince of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander presented to him at Amsterdam's Royal Palace.
In 1999, Modern Library named The Rise of the West of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century.
In 2009, he won the National Humanities Medal. In February 2010, President Barack Obama, a former University of Chicago professor himself, awarded McNeill the National Humanities Medal to recognize "his exceptional talent as a teacher and scholar at the University of Chicago and as an author of more than 20 books, including The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963), which traces civilizations through 5,000 years of recorded history".
In addition to winning the U.S. National Book Award in History and Biography in 1964 for The Rise of the West, McNeill received several other awards and honors. In 1985 he served as president of the American Historical Association.
In 1996, McNeill won the prestigious Erasmus Prize, which the Crown Prince of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander presented to him at Amsterdam's Royal Palace.
In 1999, Modern Library named The Rise of the West of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century.
In 2009, he won the National Humanities Medal. In February 2010, President Barack Obama, a former University of Chicago professor himself, awarded McNeill the National Humanities Medal to recognize "his exceptional talent as a teacher and scholar at the University of Chicago and as an author of more than 20 books, including The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963), which traces civilizations through 5,000 years of recorded history".
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 30, 2013
professional and well-written, Oxford Academic press history on Toynbee, a "big picture, clash of civilisations" historian. excellent pricing at amazon.com ebook 1.99 / 365 pages (1/4 footnotes, still 270 pages of text)
August 5, 2024
A MASTERFUL AND INSIGHTFUL BIOGRAPHY OF THE FAMED HISTORIAN
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) was a British historian whose ten-volume ‘A Study of History’ was an extremely popular approach to historical writing. Biographer William Hardy McNeill (born 1917) is an American historian who has written other books such as 'Plagues and Peoples,' 'A World History,' etc.
McNeill explains, "I entered upon the task of writing this biography ... at the invitation of Arnold Toynbee's sole surviving son... This biography is also, in a small way, an essay in world history, since the contagion of Toynbee's ideas was something of a global phenomenon." (Pg. vii) Much later, he adds, "a principal purpose of this book is to try to ... balance... the popular adulation ... and the professional hostility ... that closed in on Toynbee after the mid-1950s, obscuring his real accomplishment and the long-range importance of his work." (Pg. 239)
He quotes a young Toynbee saying, "I want to be a great gigantic historian---not for fame but because there is lots of work in the world to be done, and I am greedy for as big a share of it as I can get." (Pg. 31) McNeill adds, "But Toynbee was not content to become a conventional ancient historian. His mind was running still on a 'philosophy of history' that would deal with all the links and uniformities of ancient, medieval, and modern times..." (Pg. 46)
After becoming a professor of Greek and Byzantine History in 1919, "Toynbee was free at last to work out the grand philosophy of history of which he had dreamed since schooldays... Toynbee, in effect, cast himself as successor to Herodotus." (Pg. 92) In an early lecture, "Toynbee laid down all the fundamentals of what he later set forth at far greater length in 'A Study of History.'" (Pg. 97) McNeill states that "The idea that civilizations were essentially separate and in normal circumstances were incapable of meaningful communication was, I suggest, the central idea that Toynbee eventually borrowed from [Oswald] Spengler." (Pg. 102) He suggests that the Study was "less a philosophy of history and more a compendium of historical parallels and resemblances." (Pg. 111) Toynbee also came to rely "more and more heavily on Veronica Boulter" [who was his research assistant, and then later his wife] (Pg. 136)
McNeill notes that next to Spengler, "Toynbee was the more significant inasmuch as ... Toynbee's examples ranged more broadly and stayed closer to everyday notions about human affairs than Spengler's generalizations did... The dazzling range of his information, the boldness of his comparisons, the perspicacity of his reflections... all combine to make his first three volumes worth anyone's attention, even if his twenty-one civilizations and their cycles no longer seem as convincing as they did when the book was new." (Pg. 165)
After a 1929 mystical experience "somehow freed him from his emotional turmoil... he could no longer believe that 'religion itself was an unimportant illusion.' ... Yet Toynbee did not in the end return to the religion of his childhood. He found too much of Christian doctrine incredible for that to be possible." (Pg. 144) When in 1939 his wife left him, "The blow to Toynbee's self-esteem was almost mortal. He contemplated suicide and teetered close to madness, but in the end his religious convictions... and his habit of work prevailed." (Pg. 179) He notes, "Toynbee never wavered in the belief that the spiritual reality that had comforted him in moments of personal crisis... was at the center and core of the universe. He felt, moreover, that his own encounters with that Being were part of a long tradition of God's self-revelation to specially sensitive individuals, chosen for reasons known only to God." (Pg. 220) McNeill admits, however, that "While it is wrong to call him anti-Semitic, it remains true that Toynbee was profoundly unsympathetic to Judaism and [the Jewish people]."(Pg. 248)
Toynbee is largely "out of fashion" these days (which is not at all the same as being without considerable value), but McNeill's book does an excellent job of explaining his importance to historiography.
Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889-1975) was a British historian whose ten-volume ‘A Study of History’ was an extremely popular approach to historical writing. Biographer William Hardy McNeill (born 1917) is an American historian who has written other books such as 'Plagues and Peoples,' 'A World History,' etc.
McNeill explains, "I entered upon the task of writing this biography ... at the invitation of Arnold Toynbee's sole surviving son... This biography is also, in a small way, an essay in world history, since the contagion of Toynbee's ideas was something of a global phenomenon." (Pg. vii) Much later, he adds, "a principal purpose of this book is to try to ... balance... the popular adulation ... and the professional hostility ... that closed in on Toynbee after the mid-1950s, obscuring his real accomplishment and the long-range importance of his work." (Pg. 239)
He quotes a young Toynbee saying, "I want to be a great gigantic historian---not for fame but because there is lots of work in the world to be done, and I am greedy for as big a share of it as I can get." (Pg. 31) McNeill adds, "But Toynbee was not content to become a conventional ancient historian. His mind was running still on a 'philosophy of history' that would deal with all the links and uniformities of ancient, medieval, and modern times..." (Pg. 46)
After becoming a professor of Greek and Byzantine History in 1919, "Toynbee was free at last to work out the grand philosophy of history of which he had dreamed since schooldays... Toynbee, in effect, cast himself as successor to Herodotus." (Pg. 92) In an early lecture, "Toynbee laid down all the fundamentals of what he later set forth at far greater length in 'A Study of History.'" (Pg. 97) McNeill states that "The idea that civilizations were essentially separate and in normal circumstances were incapable of meaningful communication was, I suggest, the central idea that Toynbee eventually borrowed from [Oswald] Spengler." (Pg. 102) He suggests that the Study was "less a philosophy of history and more a compendium of historical parallels and resemblances." (Pg. 111) Toynbee also came to rely "more and more heavily on Veronica Boulter" [who was his research assistant, and then later his wife] (Pg. 136)
McNeill notes that next to Spengler, "Toynbee was the more significant inasmuch as ... Toynbee's examples ranged more broadly and stayed closer to everyday notions about human affairs than Spengler's generalizations did... The dazzling range of his information, the boldness of his comparisons, the perspicacity of his reflections... all combine to make his first three volumes worth anyone's attention, even if his twenty-one civilizations and their cycles no longer seem as convincing as they did when the book was new." (Pg. 165)
After a 1929 mystical experience "somehow freed him from his emotional turmoil... he could no longer believe that 'religion itself was an unimportant illusion.' ... Yet Toynbee did not in the end return to the religion of his childhood. He found too much of Christian doctrine incredible for that to be possible." (Pg. 144) When in 1939 his wife left him, "The blow to Toynbee's self-esteem was almost mortal. He contemplated suicide and teetered close to madness, but in the end his religious convictions... and his habit of work prevailed." (Pg. 179) He notes, "Toynbee never wavered in the belief that the spiritual reality that had comforted him in moments of personal crisis... was at the center and core of the universe. He felt, moreover, that his own encounters with that Being were part of a long tradition of God's self-revelation to specially sensitive individuals, chosen for reasons known only to God." (Pg. 220) McNeill admits, however, that "While it is wrong to call him anti-Semitic, it remains true that Toynbee was profoundly unsympathetic to Judaism and [the Jewish people]."(Pg. 248)
Toynbee is largely "out of fashion" these days (which is not at all the same as being without considerable value), but McNeill's book does an excellent job of explaining his importance to historiography.
July 1, 2025
More interesting than I had anticipated. I wish I had a better memory.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews