TOYNBEE: THE HISTORIAN AS FALSE PROPHET

In: Commentary, Volume 23, Issue 4, p. 344-355

Abstract

Toynbee is less than a historian in that he is primarily a symptom of the worship of size, of the eclipse of scruple, of the contemporary hunger for vast spectacles & for men of learning who champion at least some kind of religion. Above all, Toynbee's success is a symptom of the widespread need for some assurance that history has a meaning. Troubled by the futility of so much human suffering, by deeply ambivalent feelings about the mechanization of modern life & by profound confusion in the face of more & more specialized experts, people long desperately for the royal road to meaning. Toynbee's frequent references to God & Jesus, & the thousands of footnote references to the New Testament that record his every use of Biblical turn of speech assure the Christian reader that the Bible is still right. His famed erudition manifests itself not in a disciplined awareness of important studies of his subject matter by other writers - let alone rival hypo's or facts which do not seem to fit his own account - but in a flair for quaint allusions. His method is what Stephen Potter calls 'One-Upmanship'. Toynbee's work is insidious. It is entertaining & seems instructive, but it really is not instructive because it is utterly unreliable. It is ingratiating & seems religious, but it is full of parochial prejudice, deeply intolerant, & betrays a shocking lack of scruple. J. A. Fishman.