Egypt In A Study of History by D.C. Somervell, ed Arnold Toynbee

A Study of History 1947
Arnold Toynbee's Abridgement of D.C. Somervell's Work
Oxford University Press


p. 30

The Egyptiac Society.  This very notable society emerged in the lower valley of the Nile during the fourth millennium B.C. and became extinct in the fifth century of the Christian Era, after existing, from first to last, at least three times as long as our Western Society has existed so far.  It was without 'parents' and without offspring ; no living society can claim it as an ancestor.  All the more triumphant is the immortality that it has sought and found in stone.  It seems probable that the Pyramids, which have already borne inanimate witness to the existence of their creators for nearly five thousand years, will survive for hundreds of thousands of years to come.  It is not inconceivable that they may outlast man himself and that, in a world where there are no longer human minds to read their message, they will continue to testify : 'Before Abraham was, I am.'  

Wow.  What writing.  You know, I really wanted to see the Pyramids, and I did.  And I loved seeing them from the air before landing in Cairo, and I loved how from different vantage points of walking or riding a camel or a horse or looking at them up close or from in front of the Sphinx.. they seem more or less alike in size and seem to lie in various alignments... After all, don't you need to see them from the backs of more than one pack animal?  But I don't think even I would have written that they might outlive man and use a reference like I am in my writing.

This book studies civilizations, using the term societies, and starts with the idea that there are five:  Western, Orthodox Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Far Eastern.  

To attempt to get a handle on how societies work, the book intends to study the nineteen societies that have ever existed:
Western 
Orthodox which includes Byzantine and Russian
Iranic
Arabic  (Iranic and Arabic have now combined into Islamic)
Hindu
Far Eastern which includes Chinese and Korean/Japanese
Hellenic
Syriac
Indic
Sinic  
Minoan
Sumeric
Hittite
Babylonic
Egyptiac
Andean
Mexic
Yucatec
Mayan 

Alright, they really don't say that only nineteen civilizations have ever existed.  But as you can see there are some generalizations going on here and in order to study what a society is, we're going to look at 19 of them.  At first it seems that there are entire continents left out of the thesis.  But then it's explained what is meant by a civilization and the idea starts to become really interesting.

It was 1947 and much of the century's optimism at its advent had cooled after a couple really big wars.  Yeah, it's hard to imagine how today many people don't think of those wars as being recent. 

I shudder.  

The author intends to study civilizations, in contrast with primitive societies; of which there are legions.  And I can't wait to read along.  Most of the best books have maps, but this one has appendices including one that folds out.  Oooh.  Aaah.

I don't see any maps though.  

A co-worker brought the book to my attention.  We're always talking about the facts that few people know history and that the history we know has already been digested and regurgitated beyond recognition before it is fed to us one spoonful at a time.

I think we're at the fruit stage.  If the baby food isn't sweet enough we won't eat it.  As Dr. McGee at TTB.org says in his commentary on Micah, "They want the bottle, and they want the bottle to be warm and sweet."  

This book states that although it is issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which was founded in 1920, it is perfectly understandable that if there are any opinions in the book about international affairs, that it's not the Institute's fault.  

The Institute, as such, is precluded by its rules from expressing an opinion on any aspect of international affairs; opinions expressed in this book are, therefore, purely individual.

Okay.  That clears it up. You want something to be one way, so therefore, we're going to just come out and say with great certainty that it is.

Alright.

As it says on page one in the Introduction:  "Historians generally illustrate rather than correct the ideas of the communities within which they live and work."  I suppose this work will pretend not to do that.

We'll see if this will be a work I will read, or a work I will skim.