Born into a family of historians in London, Toynbee participated in the Paris Peace Conference after the end of the two world wars. During his university years, he was given the opportunity to travel the world and even experienced many dangers while studying in Greece. He is friendly to China and believes that the culture formed Chinese will shine in the future. Toynbee's hopes for China are now being realized. Chinese civilization and friendly cultural heritage is slowly conquering the world, the journey is long, and my generation continues to work hard.
Everyone is a Janus. "We look ahead and look backwards". When you are young, it is easy to look forward, because there is not so much past that people can't help but look back. As we get older, the temptation to dwell on the words of the past grows, and it is easier for us to move from the future to the past.
What does the future hold for humanity? There is no need to open your mind, reading Toynbee will become clear.
In the seventh chapter, Janus at the Age of 75, the author says that the manuscript of Hannibal's Legacy was handed over to the publisher that year, and the book began to be written in 1957 and was not delivered until 1964. It takes a lot of time to study history, and historians need more time than poets and mathematics. Research from the perspective of history is of great significance to future generations. In a sense, Toynbee's contribution to historical research is incomparable. But he said that half of his alumni had been deprived of their lives at the age of 27, and that if his classmate Guy Leonard Chisman had lived to be that age, he would have been able to make great achievements in the field of Roman history. Too bad he wasn't there. Toynbee experienced World War 1 and World War 2, and the impact of these things is unimaginable and felt by people who have not experienced it.
The First World War was a wide range of irreconcilable contradictions that arose during the transition from capitalist countries to imperialism. The Allied camps of Germany, Austria-Hungary and other empires went to war with the Camps of the Allies such as Great Britain, France, and Russia, and the spread of war caused immeasurable harm to the people of the whole world.
World War II (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a second global war fought by the three fascist Axis powers and vassals of the German Third Reich, the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan, against the Anti-Fascist League and anti-fascist forces throughout the world.
When World War I broke out, Toynbee's childhood was not over, and his life had been very happy. After World War II, Toynbee was a young man, many of his college classmates were killed in World War II, and he was not expropriated into the barracks for physical reasons. He once said that if it were not for physical reasons, it is estimated that he would have given his life for war before the age of 27, like many of his classmates.
Toynbee's big picture of history allowed him to really see the answer to history. The research and sacrifice he paid for this, although he did not write much, but we can all imagine. Great historians are so rare that Toynbee's contributions are increasingly recognized and shocked in today's world.
In answering the question "Why work", Toynbee gave three answers: 1. Because of anxiety; 2. Driven by conscience; and 3. The desire to discover and understand. I read "What Will Be The Tomorrow of Mankind" carefully, and I can watch and think about Toynbee with the eyes of a bystander, and my cognitive boundaries are far away from him, but some real touches still happen from time to time. I also want to answer the question "why work" and would love to give a decent answer. I have worked hard to think about it, and I also have three answers: 1, in order to live; 2, to find their own value, to get the affirmation of others and on the basis of this affirmation, to create their own personal value; 3, wait for changes at work, look forward to their own life has meaning, and through the value of work, reach the country of dreams.
My answer was not very good.
Time is not the antidote, but the antidote is all in time. History is not the end, but the end is in history. Thanks to Toynbee's opening of a large perspective on history, his experience will give us more inspiration for life.
The ancient Roman god Janus, who has two faces, is like each of us: we try to look forward when we are young, but we indulge in the past in old age; we face a limited lifespan but have an infinite spiritual world; we are all mortals who endure imperfections but still seek value in society and history.