The Western world in 2025 is experiencing a level of cultural, spiritual, and political turmoil unprecedented in our lifetimes. Yet if the great historian Arnold J. Toynbee were alive today, he would remind us that our crisis fits a much older pattern. Toynbee (1889–1975), one of the 20th century’s most influential historians, authored the monumental 12-volume A Study of History, in which he analyzed the rise and fall of 26 civilizations. His sweeping conclusion was clear:Civilizations do not die from foreign invasion—they die when they fail to. . .
