Arnold Joseph Toynbee

Arnold Joseph Toynbee 1889-1975, English historian; nephew of Arnold Toynbee . Educated at Oxford, he served in the British foreign office during World Wars I and II and was a delegate (1919) to the Paris Peace Conference. He was professor of Greek language and history (1919-55) at the Univ. of London and director of studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (1925-55). A prolific scholar, Toynbee achieved his greatest fame for his monumental work, A Study of History (12 vol., 1934-61), which appeared in an abridgment by D. C. Somervell (2 vol., 1946-57). In the Study of History, an investigation into the growth, development, and decay of civilizations, the problems of history are considered in terms of cultural groups rather than nationalities. The main thesis of the work is that the well-being of a civilization depends on its ability to respond successfully to challenges, human and environmental. Of the 26 civilizations studied, according to Toynbee, only one—Western Latin Christendom—is currently alive, and perhaps even this in decline. He has been criticized for arbitrary generalizations, factual errors, and overemphasizing the regenerative force of religion. Toynbee helped to write and edit A Survey of International Affairs and produced works on a multitude of historical topics.

Bibliography: See the biography by W. H. McNeill (1989); study by K. Thompson (1985).

Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1889–1975), historian. His great work A Study of History (10 vols, 1934–54) is a survey of the chief civilizations of the world, and an enquiry into cycles of creativity and decay. His view that the fragmentation and waning of Western civilization could already be detected, and that hope lay in a new universal religion which would recapture ‘spiritual initiative’, aroused much controversy. His other works include Civilization on Trial (1948) and The World and the West (1953). His son Philip Toynbee (1916–81) was a critic and novelist.

Stansbury, Joseph (1742–1809),English‐born Loyalist poet, came to Philadelphia (1767), where during the Revolution he was in high favor with the British as an urbane and witty satirist of the patriots. Although he opposed the Revolution he did not, like the other major Loyalist poet Jonathan Odell, become virulent or descend to invective, but chose instead with gay humor to show the foibles and inconsistencies of the patriots. His opposition took a more serious turn when he acted as a go‐between in the treasonable negotiations of Benedict Arnold and André;. Although he tolerantly tried to forget differences of opinion after the war, destroyed his earlier political verse, and wrote some conciliatory lines, the erstwhile rebels temporarily imprisoned him, causing him to flee to Nova Scotia. Not until 1793 was he able to return in safety to the U.S. His poetry was first collected in The Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Jonathan Odell (1860). Caroline Kirkland was his granddaughter.