Arnold Toynbee (historian, born 1852)
Arnold Toynbee died on the 9th of March 1883 at the age of thirty. His health had deteriorated rapidly, likely due to exhaustion from excessive work. He was born in London on the 23rd of August 1852 as the son of Joseph Toynbee, a pioneering otolaryngologist. One of nine children, he came from a family deeply embedded in British intellectual circles. His sister Grace Frankland became a bacteriologist while his brother Paget Toynbee emerged as a noted Dante scholar. The family tree extended further through his uncle Harry Valpy Toynbee who fathered the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee. These two historians often confuse modern readers because their names are so similar. Toynbee attended public schools in Blackheath and Woolwich before entering Oxford University in 1873. He studied political economy first at Pembroke College then moved to Balliol College where he eventually taught after graduating in 1878.
Toynbee delivered lectures on the history of the Industrial Revolution during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that proved widely influential. He coined or effectively popularized the term Industrial Revolution within the Anglophone world. Friedrich Engels had already circulated this phrase in Germany and elsewhere under the impression of industrial changes in Britain. English usage remained rare and inconsistent until the posthumous publication of Toynbee's Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England appeared in 1884. According to Toynbee the essence of the Industrial Revolution was the substitution of competition for medieval regulations controlling production and distribution. This shift created an agrarian revolution producing alienation between farmer and labourer. A new class of great capitalist employers appeared in the manufacturing world. Old relations between masters and men disappeared as a cash nexus substituted human ties. The Wealth of Nations and the steam engine destroyed the old world and built a new one according to his interpretation. Steam powered factories combined with competition and pauperism formed part of a single phenomenon.
Toynbee argued against laissez-faire capitalism which promoted Social Darwinism as universally beneficial. He dismissed free trade as generally advantageous only under certain circumstances not absolute ones. Few laws were considered universally true by him such as the law of diminishing returns. All depended on varying degrees of regulation appropriate to specific situations. Economic competition did drive technical progress but gained at the expense of enormous waste of human life and labour. This waste might be avoided through state regulation. He suggested differentiation between competition in production versus competition in distribution of goods. Struggles over division of joint produce were not beneficial to the community. Capitalists used all their power to oppress labourers and drove wages down to starvation points during early days. Such competition had to be checked without historical instance lasting long without modification by combination or legislation. In England both remedies operated through Trades Unions and factory legislation. A market based on competition was neither good nor bad like a stream whose strength required observation for embankments to throw up within which it may do its work harmlessly.
For Toynbee early industrial capitalism and working class conditions were subjects beyond ivory tower studies. He actively involved himself in improving living conditions of the labourer. He read for workers in large industrial centres and encouraged creation of trade unions and co-operatives. A focal point of his commitment was the slum of Whitechapel in East London where he helped establish public libraries. Toynbee also encouraged students to offer free courses for working-class audiences in their own neighbourhoods. Samuel Augustus Barnett and Henrietta Barnett founded the first university settlement in 1884 shortly after Toynbee's death. It was named Toynbee Hall in his honour as a centre for social reform on Commercial Street. The concept brought upper and middle class students into lower-class neighbourhoods to live and work together with inhabitants. This inspired a worldwide movement of university settlements helping future elites understand British society problems. Class divisions were much stronger then while social mobility remained minimal. Living conditions of the poor were completely unknown to many upper class members. Early chairs of trustees included Philip Lyttelton Gell and Lord Alfred Milner. Toynbee Hall attracted many students especially from Oxford's Wadham College and Balliol College.
Toynbee is widely accepted as the historian who ushered the expression Industrial Revolution into English language. His lectures remain influential despite his early death at age thirty. He married Charlotte Atwood on the 26th of June 1879 though she was twelve years his senior cousin of Harold Davidson. Frederick Rogers noted that publication of Henry George's Progress and Poverty may have brought about Toynbee's death. The Radical Creed he proposed stated people could not help themselves under certain conditions requiring State help representing whole people. Three conditions applied: primary social importance, practicality proof, and no diminishment of self-reliance. Nothing must weaken habits of individual self-reliance building English greatness even removing great social evils. Toynbee Hall remains active today in Whitechapel. In 1916 Arnold Toynbee House opened in New York by Stevenson Club members with philanthropist Rose Gruening. Eight years later renamed Grand Street Settlement. His work continues influencing economic history and social reform movements globally through institutions bearing his name.
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Common questions
When did Arnold Toynbee die and how old was he?
Arnold Toynbee died on the 9th of March 1883 at the age of thirty. His health had deteriorated rapidly likely due to exhaustion from excessive work.
Who is the father of historian Arnold Toynbee born in 1852?
Joseph Toynbee was a pioneering otolaryngologist and the father of Arnold Toynbee who was born in London on the 23rd of August 1852. He came from a family deeply embedded in British intellectual circles as one of nine children.
What term did Arnold Toynbee popularize regarding economic history?
Arnold Toynbee coined or effectively popularized the term Industrial Revolution within the Anglophone world. The posthumous publication of his Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England appeared in 1884 after his death.
Where is Toynbee Hall located and when was it founded?
Toynbee Hall is located on Commercial Street in Whitechapel East London where it serves as a centre for social reform. Samuel Augustus Barnett and Henrietta Barnett founded the first university settlement named Toynbee Hall in 1884 shortly after Toynbee's death.
When did Arnold Toynbee marry Charlotte Atwood?
Arnold Toynbee married Charlotte Atwood on the 26th of June 1879 though she was twelve years his senior cousin of Harold Davidson.