Customer Reviews

Mankind and Mother Earth: A Narrative History of the World

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Arnold J. Toynbee presents history the way it should be presented: Without bias and without overly rating the importance of some civilizations over others. Unlike previous authors, who treated western civilization as being supreme, Toynbee makes it clear that our earth has been and is home to other great cultures and people. His evaluations of China and her major impact on the world, by invention, art, and literature, are especially enlightening. A must-read for everyone, who wishes to broad his horizon by viewing history as the sum of all civilizations.

This is one of the rare pieces of literature that may seem to be coarce but in the due cource of attempt he is revealing and is full of wisdom.

Should somebody wish to have a glimpse of the world's evolution in short or should one dare to rush through the mamoth 12 volumes of history philosophised "Study of history" then this is the best bet to begin with. This is one of the few naratives toyenbee has contributed to us and once through them his literal theoretical discources would be easy to comprehend and gem to cherish thereafter.

The best bety would be to go through 11 volumes of naratives of Will Durrant's The story of civilization and then Toyenbees complete work would complete the first phase of universal erudition.

T

Toynbee examines some 21 civilizations that shared religion, philosophy and war. It is impossible to understand the position of the U.S. in world events today ithout this book.