“A belated return for Christ”? The Reception of Arnold J. Toynbee’s A Study of History in a British Context, 1934-61

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Abstract

The negative reception of A Study of History at the hands of British historians has masked wider responses to the work in Britain which reflect major tensions within British society and wider attitudes towards the idea of civilisation, the British Empire and religion. The highly critical response to the work from the majority of professional historians reviewing the book is indicative of major debates within British history writing, including the role of empirical and idealist interpretations of history, and the increasingly academic and scholarly role of the historian. Toynbee’s position as a public voice and a celebrity historian in the 1950s, whose approach to history eschewed constraints of period or region, represented antithesis to the expanding historical profession and scholarly research. Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History was a weathervane for contemporary cultural and intellectual concerns of the era.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)405-24
Number of pages20
JournalEuropean Review Of History-Revue Europeenne D Histoire
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014

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