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Arnold Toynbee Arnold Toynbee (Edited from Wikipedia) Arnold Toynbee (23 August 1852 – 9 March 1883) was a British economic historian also noted for his social commitment and desire to improve the living conditions of the Toynbee was born in London, the son of the physician Joseph Toynbee, a pioneering otolaryngologist. Toynbee was the uncle, via his brother Harry Valpy Toynbee, of cultural historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1889–1975). The two are often confused for each other due to the similarity of their names. Toynbee attended public schools in Blackheath and Woolwich. In 1873 he began to study political economy at Oxford University, where he went on to teach after his graduation in 1878. His lectures on the history of the Industrial Revolution in 18th and 19th century Britain proved widely influential; in fact, Toynbee coined, or at least effectively popularised, the term "Industrial Revolution" in the Anglophone world—in Germany and elsewhere it had been brought into circulation earlier by Friedrich Engels, also under the impression of the industrial changes in Britain. Toynbee died in 1883, at age 30. His health had rapidly deteriorated. Toynbee considered few economic laws as universally true. Therefore, there are no universal rules as to how strongly the state should interfere in the marketplace; it all depends on the situation and varying degrees of regulation could be appropriate. Another idea Toynbee dismissed was that free competition is universally beneficial to economic and societal progress, especially as reflected in its apotheosis in Social Darwinism, which promoted laissez-faire capitalism. From the very beginning of history, he argued, all human civilisation was essentially designed to "interfere with this brute struggle. We intend to modify the violence of the fight, and to prevent the weak being trampled under foot." Although economic competition does have its advantages, being the driving force behind technical progress, these were "gained at the expense of an enormous waste of human life and labour, which might be avoided by regulation." Toynbee suggested a differentiation between competition in production on the one hand, and competition in the distribution of goods on the other. 1 In itself, a market based on competition was neither good nor bad, but like "a stream whose strength and direction have to be observed, that embankments may be thrown up within which it may do its work harmlessly and beneficially." For Toynbee, early industrial capitalism and the situation of the working class in it was not just a subject of ivory-tower studies; he was actively involved in improving the living conditions of the labourer. He read for workers in large industrial centres and encouraged the creation of trade unions and co-operatives. A focal point of his commitment was the slum of Whitechapel, in east London, where he helped to establish public libraries for the working-class population. Toynbee also encouraged his students to offer free courses for working-class audiences in their own neighbourhoods. Inspired by his ideas, 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. A centre for social reform, Toynbee Hall was on Commercial Street, Whitechapel. It remains active today. The concept was to bring upper and middle class students into lower-class neighbourhoods, not only to provide education and social aid, but to actually live and work together with their inhabitants. This soon inspired a worldwide movement of university settlements. The idea was to help members of the future elite understand the problems of British society; this was especially important at a time when class divisions were much stronger, social mobility was minimal, and the living conditions of the poor were completely unknown to many members of the upper class. Toynbee is widely accepted as the historian who ushered the expression 'the industrial revolution' into the English language. Although French and German commentators had used this term in the early nineteenth century, English use had been rare and inconsistent until the posthumous publication of Toynbee's Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England. According to Toynbee, "the essence of the Industrial Revolution" was "the substitution of competition for the medieval regulations which had previously controlled the production and distribution of wealth." Among its components were an "agrarian revolution" that produced "the alienation between farmer and labourer," and in the manufacturing world, the appearance of a "new class of great capitalist employers." "The old relations between masters and men disappeared, and a 'cash nexus' was substituted for the human tie." Summing up his interpretation, Toynbee wrote, "the Wealth of Nations and the steam-engine...destroyed the old world and built a new one." 2 In response to this bleak scenario, Toynbee proposed a test for when the state should become involved in the regulation of an economic or social sphere of society to even the balance between industry and labour. He proposed the "Radical Creed," which, "as I understand it, is this: We have not abandoned our old belief in liberty, justice, and Self-help, but we say that under certain conditions the people cannot help themselves, and that then they should be helped by the State representing directly the whole people. In giving this State help, we make three conditions: first, the matter must be one of primary social importance; next, it must be proved to be practicable; thirdly, the State interference must not diminish self-reliance. Even if the chance should arise of removing a great social evil, nothing must be done to weaken those habits of individual self-reliance and voluntary association which have built up the greatness of the English people." 3.
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