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Understanding History

29.99 €
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Understanding History
29.99 €
In basket
The book is devoted to the presentation of A.J. Toynbee's theory of civilizations. The author put forward criteria for evaluating civilizations: stability in time and space, in situations of challenge and interaction with other peoples. He sees the meaning of civilization in the fact that comparable units (monads) of history pass through similar stages of development. Successfully developing civilizations go through the stages of emergence, growth, fracture and decay. The development of a civilization is determined by whether the creative minority of the civilization is able to find answers to the challenges of the natural world and the human environment. Toynbee notes the following types of challenges: the challenge of harsh climate (Egyptian, Sumerian, Chinese, Mayan, Andean civilizations), the challenge of new lands (Minoan civilization), the challenge of sudden blows from neighboring societies (Hellenic civilization), the challenge of constant external pressure (Russian Orthodox, Western civilization), and the challenge of infringement, when a society, having lost something vital, directs its energy to the development of properties that compensate for the loss.
The currently living civilizations are, according to Toynbee, the last members of civilizational triads. These are the sequences: Minoan-Hellenic-Western civilization, Minoan-Hellenic-Orthodox civilization, Minoan-Syrian-Islamic civilization, Sumerian-Indian-Hindu civilization.
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