A Study of History, Vol 3

 

Title: A Study of History, Vol 3 – The Growths of Civilizations

Author: Arnold Joseph Toynbee

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1985 (First published 1935)

ISBN: 978-0-19-215209-1

Pages: 551

Toynbee continues his study through this third volume in the series by analyzing the source, nature and ways of growths of civilizations. In the first two parts, he specified what a civilization is and how one such society sprouts its first shoots as a response to challenges from physical or human sphere of influences. This volume discusses about the criteria of growth, because once something takes birth, it is the next step to take. This does not take place automatically, and this volume is a catalog of several false starts and stillbirths. A creative minority in the society puts forward original ideas which might be ridiculed by the unthinking majority of the population. The pioneers then withdraw to seclusion in which the metamorphosis of development of the idea takes place. In the fullness of time, such savants return to the society and conquer the minds of the majority with their seed of originality. This takes deep root in the society and it moves forward on the path of development. We see from the numerous examples cited in the volume that this principle is faithfully followed by all civilizations in the world. The author appends an index which covers the first three volumes with this part.

Once a society crosses the threshold of stimulus and response, growth of civilization is the logical next step. However, this is not guaranteed to take place on its own. In some cases, the adaptation may happen to be greatly in step with the physical challenge that the society is placed in a predicament in which it becomes impossible to modify its behaviour to changing circumstances and the civilization becomes arrested at the level. Toynbee’s statement of the fact may be thus summarized but the justification of the argument is long drawn out and thorough. The four civilizations, the Eskimos, Nomads, Osmanlis and Sparta are cited as examples. All these faced an immense challenge in the human or physical arenas in which the Nomads were forced to migrate to desert oases according to the season of the year. The people are slaves to the climate, just like the Eskimos are guided by the vagaries of snowfall. The characteristics picked up by the barbarians don’t leave them easily even after they have established a flourishing civilization. Nomads make use of animal assistance in the form of horses and dogs to watch over the cattle. The author establishes that the Spartans and Osmanlis (Ottoman Turks) exhibit this trait of nomadism by recruiting slaves from the subject population and keeping them as watchdogs over the human cattle. A bright narrative follows in which the in and out of Janissary system of Turks and the ‘Agoge’ of ancient Spartans are enunciated in precise detail. Ottomans took slaves from their Christian subjects In Europe and Caucasus, trained them in selected professions, converted them into Islam and made them work in administration and military of the Porte. These Janissaries carried the day forward and even rose to the position of Vizier, and sons of female slaves borne of the king even ascended the throne. The Osmanli’s made use of this system of human watchdogs to guard over human cattle, because the streak of nomadism runs straight through their ancestry in the European Steppe.

The criterion for the growth of a civilization is to be found out next. Toynbee argues that mere geographic expansion or a supreme command of the human environment is not an indicator of growth. In fact, these are symptoms of the civilization’s disintegration. This counter-intuitive proposition is brought home by a plethora of examples plucked out of the pages of world history. Hellenic Civilization reached its widest geographical frontiers under Alexander the Great, but that was during the disintegration phase, with the emperor himself coming out to the stage as a barbarian. Similarly, Roman civilization enjoyed its zenith after the successful prosecution of the Punic wars, but the empire entered its path to decline immediately thereafter. In the human sphere too, the situation is not at all different. The expansion of a society in the human environment may be thought of as borrowing of artistic, political, social or military techniques of that society by other populations. This also does not constitute a criterion of growth.

Then, how do we know whether a society is in the growth phase of civilization? A new concept of ‘Withdrawal and Return’ is postulated at this point. The first spark of creative genius is born in a single person, or among a few people in a society. The rest of the populace may mock at these gifted few. They then withdraw from the general stream of popular life and sharpen their intellect and ideas. At a opportune time this creative minority returns to the midst of the society which alienated or drove them out a short while before. But this time, the creative challenge would have evoked a brilliant response, made all the more attractive through embellishments accumulated over those years when the creative minority was steeped in an apparent hibernation. Suddenly, the idea catches on public imagination and the majority takes to it by mimesis. This puts in motion the wheels of civilizations to progress. The author argues with evidence of examples that this is the process through which a society grows. Not only individual people, but penalized minorities also may follow the path of ‘withdrawal and return’ to pull off the vehicle of growth on their way. Toynbee’s examples are plenty and convincing but one may have doubts on the veracity of at least a few of them, like Paul Von Hindenburg, the German administrator, or Clarendon, the English historian whose biographies are quoted as proof of his concept of ‘Withdrawal and Return’.

The volume ends with the way in which industrialism and democracy triumphed in the western world that went on to conquer the whole world on the cultural plane. These ideals were not compatible with a locally self-sufficient agricultural society burdened with feudalism that carried a despotic monarch on its back. Medieval Italy demonstrated the alternative concept of city-states that relied on commerce and industry. The challenge of transforming the feudal structure to make it compatible with city-states was taken up in every kingdom, but the successful response was obtained in England which then stood as a role model for other societies to imitate these ideals of industrialism and democracy.

Eruption of nomads from the steppes of Asia and Africa had upset the balance of sedentary populations on the edges of grasslands. The factor that put these aggressive behaviour in motion had not been fully understood, but the author proposes a fine idea to explain this recurrent phenomena. Toynbee proposes two factors to account for this – climatic as well as human. The aridity of the steppe changes over a period. With the conclusions of Ellsworth Huntington, it may be seen that the cycle of aridity and humidity oscillates with a period of 600 years, the first half of it being dry and the second half moist. The nomads find their habitat shrunk by advancing desert line and a as a consequence erupt to the peasant’s lands. During the second half, more of the steppe become cultivatable and the peasants take back the land, forcing many nomads to accept sedentary lifestyle or to penetrate deeper into the steppe. A comprehensive list of such eruptions that correspond to the spokes of the cycle is given and it is quite convincing. As far as the human factor is concerned, this implies the pull exerted on nomads by the vacuum created by breakdown of sedentary societies which is clearly evident from the examples listed.

Reading Toynbee is a tough experience that should be thought of as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The diction and vocabulary is so superb and the structure so crafted as to convey many interrelated ideas in a single sentence. This is the general tenure of the series, but the section on ‘An Analysis of Growth’ that looks into philosophical roots and sources of the growths of societies is really tough. You need superhuman perseverance to navigate through this thick mess of esoteric concepts taken from works of J C Smuts  and Henri Bergson. At another point, the author’s assertion that western civilization has conquered all parts of the globe and positively or negatively influences even opposition to it raised by other civilizations, is noteworthy. Mahatma Gandhi’s agitations against the Raj is referred here, but Toynbee states that even though he fights to put Indian ideals into reality, his modus operandi of meetings, resolutions, petitions and opposition is so thoroughly western and so is the path of Indian industry as against Gandhi’s own ideals . The textile mills of Ahmedabad uses western production methods and present as big to a contrast to Gandhi’s ideal of homespun cloth as the textile factories of Manchester. This comparison presented on old dichotomy in a clear light.  

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star