Arnold J. Toynbee

Arnold J. Toynbee (born April 14, 1889, London, England—died October 22, 1975, York, North Yorkshire) was an English historian whose 12-volume A Study of History (1934–61) put forward a philosophy of history, based on an analysis of the cyclical development and decline of civilizations, that provoked much discussion. Toynbee was a nephew of the 19th-century economist Arnold Toynbee. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford (classics, 1911), and studied briefly at the British School at...