Has Toynbee ever said this?

March 21, 2007 8:27 AM

On the back cover of my copy of Gates of Fire it says something like (quoting on the top of my head here) "Toynbee said that 'what ifs' are generally irrelevant in history, except for one - what if the Persians had conquered Greece? Then what we regard as western civilization would not exist". Has Toynbee ever said such a thing? Where?
posted by falameufilho to Religion & Philosophy (1 answer total)

Best answer: It would be from Toynbee's "Some Problems of Greek History", the last quarter of which deals with various ancient counter-factuals.
posted by Hartster at 8:58 AM on March 21, 2007