Toynbee Arnold Joseph (1889-1975), English historian and sociologist. Under the influence of the ideas of O. Spengler, he put forward the theory of the cycle of successive local civilizations, each of which undergoes similar stages of emergence, growth, fracture and decomposition; the driving force behind their development is the "creative elite," which carries along the "inert majority." The collection is based on the materials of the first seven volumes of the capital work of the outstanding British historian Arnold J. Toynbee "Comprehension of History."