This eminent British historian and major interpreter of Western Civilization in the 20th century was born in 1889. Toynbee's sweeping perspective on human history led him to affirm a Pantheist world view: "If I am right in my diagnosis of mankind's present-day distress, the remedy lies in reverting from the Weltanschauung of monotheism to the Weltanschauung of pantheism, which is older and was once universal."