This article analyses the international thought of Arnold J. Toynbee. However, it does not focus on civilisations, but examines a less investigated aspect of his work: the world state. Between the 1920s and the 1970s, the British historian sought a solution to the crisis of international politics that would guarantee stability and peace in the world. In the atomic age, he identified the peaceful and voluntary unification of humanity as a solution to the danger of mutual nuclear destruction. This analysis assesses the different stages of Toynbee’s international thought. In fact, while in the 1920s and 1930s he developed a liberal approach strongly rooted in the tradition of British imperialism, from the 1940s and 1950s onwards he first moved towards a cosmopolitan perspective built on a capacity for revolutionary political imagination, and finally he arrived at a spiritual and utopian solution
Castellin, L. G., Sopravvivere al futuro. Arnold J. Toynbee e lo Stato mondiale, <<STORIA DEL PENSIERO POLITICO>>, 2023; XII (1/2023): 45-64. [doi:10.4479/106905] [https://hdl.handle.net/10807/233871]
Sopravvivere al futuro. Arnold J. Toynbee e lo Stato mondiale
Castellin, Luca Gino
Primo
2023
Abstract
This article analyses the international thought of Arnold J. Toynbee. However, it does not focus on civilisations, but examines a less investigated aspect of his work: the world state. Between the 1920s and the 1970s, the British historian sought a solution to the crisis of international politics that would guarantee stability and peace in the world. In the atomic age, he identified the peaceful and voluntary unification of humanity as a solution to the danger of mutual nuclear destruction. This analysis assesses the different stages of Toynbee’s international thought. In fact, while in the 1920s and 1930s he developed a liberal approach strongly rooted in the tradition of British imperialism, from the 1940s and 1950s onwards he first moved towards a cosmopolitan perspective built on a capacity for revolutionary political imagination, and finally he arrived at a spiritual and utopian solutionI documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.