MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY OF THE WORK AND THOUGHT
OF ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE
by Teodoro Tagliaferri (University of Naples Federico II)
No. 6 (January 23th, 2022)
WRITINGS ON THE EMPIRES IN WORLD HISTORY, IV
Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Introduction, in Hitler’s Europe (Survey of International Affairs 1939-
1946, 4), edited by Arnold Toynbee and Veronica Marjorie Toynbee, Issued under the
Auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, Oxford University Press, 1954,
pp. 1-10.
“The present volume of the History of the Second World War in the Survey series has been
given the title of Hitler’s Europe advisedly, because the facts testify that Hitler’s personality
was the key both to the amazing establishment and to the still more amazing collapse of
the Third German Reich’s short-lived domination over the rest of the European peninsula of
the continent of Asia. This temporary enslavement of Europe by Germany was Hitler’s
personal achievement; and Germany’s swift loss of her conquests – which was even more
extraordinary than her swift achievement of them – was due to Hitler’s personal inability to
reap for Germany a harvest that had been ripened by the magic of his personal gifts.”
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