After reading Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West", young Arnold Toynbee who worked at the British Institute of International Affairs, thought he could do better and began this very ambitious book. It will eventually comprise ten volumes of text, and an Atlas, then a volume of "Reconsiderations". I love this work, for explains a great deal, though not everything. It is superior to the abridgements by Somerval and the appendices and excursions are a good part of the fun. So far as I know, some forty years later, it's still the best book about the inner workings of world civilization, and I've been reading and comparing other works to it all time since. Volume one introduces the civilizations covered though he had to add the Hittites later, and defines what a civilization is, and establishes the mechanism of "Challenge and Response" the core of his argument. Since I've read the whole thing three times, I admit to being a fan, in the best sense of the term.. ( )

This would be improved by maps and chronologies. Hard to encompass unless one share the author's comprehensive knowledge. In this volume he defines what he means by a civilization and its affiliates. Explains the basis for his choices of cultures to examine in depth.