Acquaintances

"The sketches of acquaintances of mine that are included in this book are, of course, only a selection. I have picked out, for publication, recollections of personalities that seemed to me as if they might be of some general interest." So begins the preface of Arnold Toynbee's ACQUAINTANCES. The 24 personalities include intimate family sketches as well as portraits of world leaders and great personalities such as Jan Smuts, T.E. Lawrence and Nehru. Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) was an English historian best known for his 12-volume A STUDY IN HISTORY, in which he propounded the problems of history in terms of great cultural groups and civilizations rather than of nationalities.