Jackpot! I found AJ Toynbee's "A Study of History" at a rummage sale!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Study_of_History

The whole, multi-volume, unabridged version. :woohoo:

looks like I'll be busy reading!

with water damage.

Good find!

I find Toynbee's approach fascinating. IMO the West is about half-way through what Toynbee called the "Time of Troubles" phase, similar to the Graeco-Roman world in ~180 BC. I consider the American and French revolutions, and the Napoleonic Wars, to be the trigger for the ToT, similar to what Toynbee considered the Peloponnesian War was for Graeco-Roman society. The Elites have definitely degenerated from a meritocratic Creative Minority that leads by example (in Western history this position was filled first by monks and clergy, then by merchants and businesspeople; the old link with clergy can be seen in the terms "clerk" and "clerical") into a Dominant Minority hat rules by coercion (the transnational corporatist class).