Book Review: The World and the West
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| Author | A. R. M. Lower |
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205400900108 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REVIEWS
THE
WORLD
AND
THE
WEST.
By Arnold
J.
Toynbee.
The
B.B.C.
Reith Lectures
for
1952. 1953.
(London;
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
viii,
99pp.
$2.00)
These
six
lectures,
Mr.
Toynbee
tells
us in
his
preface,
are
drawn from
one
of
the
topics
dealt
with
in
the
last
four
volumes
of
his
Study
of
History,
now
in
the
press.
They
discuss
Russia,
Islam,
India,
the
Far
East
in
relation
to
"the
West," including
a
chapter
on
"The
Psychology
of
Encounters"
and
a
concluding one
on
"The
World
and
the
Greeks
and Romans."
It
is
difficult
to
review
lectures
which
are
in themselves
highly
synoptic.
The
general
theme
is
simple
and
familiar:
"the
West"
has
been
aggressive
for
the
last
four
and
a
half
centuries
and
has
made
itself
highly
unpopular
with
the
peoples
against
whom
its
aggressions
have
been
directed.
This
theme
is
supported
by
historical
illustration.
No
one
would
attempt
to
deny
that,
during
the
period
re-
ferred
to,
many
parts
of
the
world
have
felt the
effects
of
the
expansive
energies
originating
within
what
is
usually
and
in
a
loose
manner
referred
to
as
"Europe" and
that
these
expansive
energies
have
often
taken
unpleasant
forms.
The
intruder
and
conqueror
may normally
expect
to
be
disliked
and
hated
by
those
among
whom
he
comes.
Aggression
almost
necessarily
provokes
counter-attack
in
which
the
weapons
of
the
aggressor
are
borrow-
ed
and
turned
against
him
(using
the
word
weapons
in
a
wide
sense
to
mean
all
the
devices,
physical,
moral and
cultural,
which
one
group normally
unlooses
upon
another
in
the
process
of
domination).
Some
weapons
prove
more
effective
than
others:
of
these,
techniques
are
the
chief
and
they
usually
prove
the
Trojan's
horse
which
carries
in
with
it
the
whole
destructive
range
of
the
civilization
against
which defence
is sought.
These
and
others
of
the
sort
are
the
obvious
type
of generalization
e
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