Arnold Joseph Toynbee, the author of the Study of History, was born on April 14, 1889. Toynbee's work was a multi-volumed attempt to find patterns in history, and thus demonstrate that civilizations could be understood, the same way we explicate the nature of various species.
His uncle was also a historian, and also named Arnold Toynbee. The elder Toynbee wrote about the industrial revolution. Our Toynbee edited a selection of his uncle's writings, and one metaphor he included, to illustrate international politics, was this:
"Twisting the lion's tail ceases to be rewarding if the lion shrinks to the size of a cat."
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