Toynbee's Approach to World Politics
Material type:
- 327.11 Mas
Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Gandhi Smriti Library | 327.11 Mas (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 12005 |
In his grandiose opus, A Study of History, Professor Toyn bee has pursued two main objectives. In the first place, he has formulated a "system," or theory of history, developed by him through the discovery of general laws about the birth, decline, and interrelationships of some twenty-one units of history or "civilizations." In the second place, he has pre sented what has been called a "tract for the times" - a rather diffuse statement of his views and interpretations with respect to the present world crisis. It is to aspects of the latter that this monograph is devoted, with the specific purpose of analyzing Toynbee's approach to world politics. Although the "tract for the times" is the more superficial and less original part of the Study, it should by no means be regarded merely as an appendage to the "system." It could even be argued with some validity that the "system" was devised chiefly to confirm the insights put forward in the "tract."
The scope of the present monograph is limited. Toynbee's views on world politics are presented in a descriptive, al though necessarily selective, manner. One chapter is con cerned with his interpretations of Western relations with Russia and the Afro-Asian world, including a discussion of the general problem of war. Another chapter deals with his long-range religious solution to the current world crisis, ex amining also the unusual religious position assumed by him. In a final chapter an attempt is made to relate Toynbee to certain contemporary writers on international These chapters are preceded by a discussion of the methodology employed in the Study, since methodological considerations affect Toynbee's approach to all subjects, the "system" as well as the "tract." 2
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