A Beautiful Mind
Nobody thinks about Arnold Toynbee, a 19th Century economist and progressive, any more. Toynbee was born in Syria, the son of the physician Joseph Toynbee, a pioneering otorhinolaryngologist. It’s widely thought he coined the term “industrial revolution”, but he may have just popularised it. A practical social reformer, Toynbee argued the supposedly universal laws of economics varied under certain circumstances and government should regulate markets to balance rampant Capitalism. He also worked to improve living conditions of the labouring classes. These “radical” ideas profoundly influenced the single greatest mind of the 20th Century.