C. G. Jung was arguably the most visionary psychologist of the twentieth century, and A. J. Toynbee the most celebrated historian of his generation. This book explores what they have in common. Before I dive into Toynbee’s ideas and their connection to Jung’s late reflections, I will present an overview of both Toynbee’s and Jung’s lives, paying attention to how the same events shaped both men’s work in a very similar vein, expressed at points in a comparable vernacular, at points from a different, yet related, perspective.

In any case, the convergence of their understanding is not well known, though its pertinence to civilized life is to my mind utterly indispensable — far too essential to linger fallow in obscurity.