What do you think?
Rate this book
亚洲高原之旅：文明的兴亡
1960年，71岁的阿诺德·汤因比，在阿富汗、巴基斯坦、印度进行了五个月的旅行。这位“20世纪最伟大的历史学家之一”，巨著《历史研究》的作者，被这片亚洲高原的魅力激发起智慧火花，以宏大的视野、生动的文字，描绘着多元灿烂的亚洲文明、错综复杂的地缘格局。
这片土地的历史与现实总是难以区分。自二战后分道扬镳的印度与巴基斯坦，处于内忧外患但一直没有放弃现代化努力的阿富汗，有着千丝万缕关系的幕后大国……这一幕与历史何其相似：从犍陀罗到贵霜，从孔雀王朝到萨珊波斯，从花剌子模到莫卧儿帝国，从英俄大博弈到冷战，文明的兴亡与角逐，一直是这片土地不变的话题。
相信所有关注这片土地的人都会认同汤因比的感受：不论何时，这里一直是上演人类重大历史事件的舞台，永远值得关注。
这片土地的历史与现实总是难以区分。自二战后分道扬镳的印度与巴基斯坦，处于内忧外患但一直没有放弃现代化努力的阿富汗，有着千丝万缕关系的幕后大国……这一幕与历史何其相似：从犍陀罗到贵霜，从孔雀王朝到萨珊波斯，从花剌子模到莫卧儿帝国，从英俄大博弈到冷战，文明的兴亡与角逐，一直是这片土地不变的话题。
相信所有关注这片土地的人都会认同汤因比的感受：不论何时，这里一直是上演人类重大历史事件的舞台，永远值得关注。
198 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
6 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Arnold J. Toynbee
692 books521 followersNot the same as Arnold Toynbee, economist and nephew of Arnold Joseph Toynbee
British educator Arnold Joseph Toynbee noted cyclical patterns in the growth and decline of civilizations for his 12-volume Study of History (1934-1961).
He went to Winchester college and Balliol college, Oxford.
During both world wars, he worked for the foreign office. He additionally published Nationality and the War (1915), The Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation (1915), The German Terror in France: An Historical Record (1917), and Turkey, a Past and a Future (1917). He attended the peace conference of Paris in 1919 as a delegate.
From 1919 to 1924, Arnold J. Toynbee served as professor of modern Greek and Byzantine at King's college, London. From 1925, Oxford University Press published The Survey of International Affairs under the auspices of the royal institute of international affairs, and Toynbee, professor, oversaw the publication. From 1925, Toynbee served as research professor and director at the royal institute of international affairs. He published The Conduct of British Empire Foreign Relations since the Peace Settlement (1928).
His first marriage to Rosalind Murray produced three sons and ended in divorce in 1946. Toynbee, professor, then married Veronica M. Boulter, his research assistant. He published Civilization on Trial (1948).
Toynbee served as research professor and director at the royal institute of international affairs until 1955.
People published best known lectures of Toynbee, professor, in memory of Adam Gifford as An Historian's Approach to Religion (1956). His massive work examined development and decay. He presented the rise and fall rather than nation-states or ethnic groups. According to his analysis, the welfare depends on ability to deal successfully with challenges.
He also published Democracy in the Atomic Age (1957), Christianity among the Religions of the World (1958), and Between Niger and Nile (1965).
He died in York, North Yorkshire, England.
British educator Arnold Joseph Toynbee noted cyclical patterns in the growth and decline of civilizations for his 12-volume Study of History (1934-1961).
He went to Winchester college and Balliol college, Oxford.
During both world wars, he worked for the foreign office. He additionally published Nationality and the War (1915), The Armenian Atrocities: The Murder of a Nation (1915), The German Terror in France: An Historical Record (1917), and Turkey, a Past and a Future (1917). He attended the peace conference of Paris in 1919 as a delegate.
From 1919 to 1924, Arnold J. Toynbee served as professor of modern Greek and Byzantine at King's college, London. From 1925, Oxford University Press published The Survey of International Affairs under the auspices of the royal institute of international affairs, and Toynbee, professor, oversaw the publication. From 1925, Toynbee served as research professor and director at the royal institute of international affairs. He published The Conduct of British Empire Foreign Relations since the Peace Settlement (1928).
His first marriage to Rosalind Murray produced three sons and ended in divorce in 1946. Toynbee, professor, then married Veronica M. Boulter, his research assistant. He published Civilization on Trial (1948).
Toynbee served as research professor and director at the royal institute of international affairs until 1955.
People published best known lectures of Toynbee, professor, in memory of Adam Gifford as An Historian's Approach to Religion (1956). His massive work examined development and decay. He presented the rise and fall rather than nation-states or ethnic groups. According to his analysis, the welfare depends on ability to deal successfully with challenges.
He also published Democracy in the Atomic Age (1957), Christianity among the Religions of the World (1958), and Between Niger and Nile (1965).
He died in York, North Yorkshire, England.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 8, 2022
Although my Readers Union edition is a small book, it is small print, and densely written. Toynbee is an academic, we writes in a way which is, at times picturesque and able to conjure imagery, but at other times is bogged down in geographical complexities. Two quotes at either end of the spectrum follow.
Toynebee shares his journey undertaken in 1960 over the period February 19 to July 1 - some 5 and a bit months. Arriving in Delhi, he spends time in north-west India, Pakistan and a circular route through Afghanistan. The rivers Oxus and Jumna form the limits of his journey.
Very through in his description of his route, his travels and especially the towns & villages, mountains, valleys and rivers, and delving into historical events where these cross over, the reader must either have a thorough understanding of these countries layout, be constantly referring to a map, or remain blissfully unaware of the authors physical location (mine was a combination of the last two).
Contained within the book is a very detailed itinerary, covering each day; a thorough index; and an ink drawn map showing country borders, rivers and a complex route with numbered locations (but no names). Accompanying the map is they key, which is a table with the numbers the location and the date(s) visited. This is a fairly complex thing, but likely the only way to show the circuitous and crossing over route.
Also included are a few photographs - some colour, some black and white. The colour ones are great photos of the Mazar-i-Sharif (Blue Mosque in Mazar) and Gohar Shad's tomb in Herat.
By the time Toynbee undertook this trip, he was seventy-one years old, and his bold itinerary is testament to his ambition and tenacity. There was only one time he faltered, although he was still game. (If, like me, you needed a definition of 'obstreperous', it is 'noisy and difficult to control' and typically attributed to boys!)
P53
For fifty years past, I had been studying this chapter of the world's history in books and on maps. Here, at Istalif, I had been able to take it all in at a glance; and that one glance had told me more than my fifty-years' book-work had.
P138
The view from the Amadarra rest-house must be one of the loveliest in the world. The fortified crag on which the rest-house stands overhangs the take-off of the Malakand Canal from the Swat River. The canal runs south, through a tunnel under the Malakand Pass, to generate hydro-electric power and to make the fortune of Mardan by irrigating its once parched plain. The river vanishes west-wards into a gorge, to collect the waters of the Panjkora and then break out of the mountains to Abazai. Above the gorge the Swat River meanders in many channels; and it has so much water to give that, even in June, the valley is still green.
Toynebee shares his journey undertaken in 1960 over the period February 19 to July 1 - some 5 and a bit months. Arriving in Delhi, he spends time in north-west India, Pakistan and a circular route through Afghanistan. The rivers Oxus and Jumna form the limits of his journey.
Very through in his description of his route, his travels and especially the towns & villages, mountains, valleys and rivers, and delving into historical events where these cross over, the reader must either have a thorough understanding of these countries layout, be constantly referring to a map, or remain blissfully unaware of the authors physical location (mine was a combination of the last two).
Contained within the book is a very detailed itinerary, covering each day; a thorough index; and an ink drawn map showing country borders, rivers and a complex route with numbered locations (but no names). Accompanying the map is they key, which is a table with the numbers the location and the date(s) visited. This is a fairly complex thing, but likely the only way to show the circuitous and crossing over route.
Also included are a few photographs - some colour, some black and white. The colour ones are great photos of the Mazar-i-Sharif (Blue Mosque in Mazar) and Gohar Shad's tomb in Herat.
By the time Toynbee undertook this trip, he was seventy-one years old, and his bold itinerary is testament to his ambition and tenacity. There was only one time he faltered, although he was still game. (If, like me, you needed a definition of 'obstreperous', it is 'noisy and difficult to control' and typically attributed to boys!)
P1424 stars
The river was obstreperous, but looked fordable. Surely one could cross it along the ledge where the road ought to have been. I had rolled up my trousers and was taking off my shoes when the Nawab's retainer made a representation.
'Sir', he said, 'you are quite hot with walking in the sun, and the water of this river is icy cold; it comes from snow, just up there. If you wade in it, straight from your hot walk, you will catch a chill; your stomach will be upset in the night; and when what will the Nawab say to me?'
The retainer had played a trump card; for it is no joke for any subject of the Nawab's to incur the Nawab's displeasure. I hesitated, and instantly the retainer's partner, Common Sense, showed her hand. I was seventy-one; it was 6.00 pm; the next stretch of the road, beyond the Mena River, was steep; and the total climb, within those next ten miles, must be at least 4000 feet, for the Mena ford could not be more than 6000 feet above sea level, if it was that. Yes, my opponent held all the cards; I had lost the game; I admitted defeat, and turned back.
June 7, 2023
既是历史，也是游记。不过比起历史，本书更接近于一本游记。
汤因比无疑是一位卓越的历史学家，但他肯定不是一个出色的游记作者。太多的地名，太多的景色描写，以至于不就着谷歌地图，我根本就不知道老先生在说些什么。偶尔，我也会忍不住产生一种错觉，怀疑这整本书就是为路虎车写的一篇软文。
真正让我感叹的，还是时年71岁的汤因比身上那种不知疲倦的好奇心。他总是按捺不住要去走一些异常艰险的路线，令他的同伴和司机“就跟听见来自地狱的召唤一样”。
然而，在这样的旅程面前，文字难免显得苍白。汤因比自己也说：“只一眼，便胜过读书五十载”。
无论是这一眼，还是那五十载，我都倾慕不已。
汤因比无疑是一位卓越的历史学家，但他肯定不是一个出色的游记作者。太多的地名，太多的景色描写，以至于不就着谷歌地图，我根本就不知道老先生在说些什么。偶尔，我也会忍不住产生一种错觉，怀疑这整本书就是为路虎车写的一篇软文。
真正让我感叹的，还是时年71岁的汤因比身上那种不知疲倦的好奇心。他总是按捺不住要去走一些异常艰险的路线，令他的同伴和司机“就跟听见来自地狱的召唤一样”。
然而，在这样的旅程面前，文字难免显得苍白。汤因比自己也说：“只一眼，便胜过读书五十载”。
无论是这一眼，还是那五十载，我都倾慕不已。
February 8, 2012
An engagingly written travelogue by one of the 20th century's greatest historians (which I maintain even though his systematizing approach is definitely out of fashion these days). While there is definitely a whiff of old British Imperial here and there (hard to avoid for a Englishman travelling through the former Raj and the setting of the Great Game), Mr Toynbee's enthusiasm for the history and genuine admiration and regard for the societies of South and Central Asia shows through. More a collection of impressionistic essays than a coherent account, it was nevertheless very enjoyable.
October 30, 2021
Book is very useful information ancient civilizations and history of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Iran.
February 19, 2013
History of Pakistan and Afghanistan
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 24, 2012
Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews