Arnold Toynbee's Study of History, Part II: The Theory Discussed

E.E.Y. Hales outlines the theories of and challenges to the British socialist historian and philosopher.

E.E.Y. Hales | Published in History Today Volume 5 Issue 5 May 1955

In last month’s article we left Professor Toynbee dreaming that he clasped the foot of the crucifix over the high altar of the Abbey of Ampleforth and heard a voice saying: “Cling and Wait.”

This dream, or vision, provides the natural starting point for a discussion of his historical outlook because, as his critic in the Times Literary Supplement justly observed, his works are really the record of a soul’s pilgrimage in which this pelegrinus Wiccamicus,

“finding the by-ways of space and time ... filled with a beautiful, fascinating, yet deadly violence ... has clung all the more firmly to the foot of the Crucifix.”