TOYNBEE, ARNOLD (1852-1883), English social re former and economist, second son of Joseph Toynbee (1815 1866), a distinguished surgeon, was born in London on Aug. 23, 1852. He had originally intended to enter the army, but ill health and a growing love of books changed his plans, and he settled down to read for the bar. Here again the same causes produced a change of purpose, and he entered as a student at Pembroke College, Oxford. Two years later he removed to Balliol college, where, after taking his degree, he was appointed lecturer and tutor to students preparing for the Indian civil service. He de voted himself to the study of economics and economic history. He was a practical social reformer, taking part in much public work and delivering lectures in the large industrial centres on economic problems. He overtaxed his strength, and after lectur ing in London in January 1883 he had a complete break-down, and died of inflammation of the brain at Wimbledon on March 9.
Toynbee had a striking influence on his contemporaries, not merely through his intellectual powers, but by his strength of character, love of truth and ardent and active zeal for the public good. He was the author of some fragmentary pieces, published
under the title of The Industrial Revolution (1884).
Toynbee's interest in the poor and his anxiety to be personally acquainted with them led to his close association with the district of Whitechapel in London, where Canon Barnett (q.v.) was at that time vicar—an association which was commemorated after his death by the social settlement of Toynbee Hall, the first of many institutions for social betterment. (See SETTLEMENTS.) See F. C. Montague's Arnold Toynbee (Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1889) ; Lord Milner's Arnold Toynbee: a Reminiscence (190n) ; and L. L. Price's Short History of Political Economy in England for a criticism of Toynbee as an economist ; also a new edition of his Lectures on the Industrial Revolution (1919), with preface by Lord Milner.