HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SOUTH EAST ASIA AND VIETNAM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HISTORIAN A.J. TOYNBEE

Abstract

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889 - 1975) was the world’s great historian in 20^th century. Besides the history of human civilization expounded with the overall view and macro-approach as it’s the biggest feature; the regional and national civilizations also became his research objectives and. Despite being a Western historian, A.J. Toynbee (ignored the popular notion among Western scholars - “Eurocentric” and regarded the importance of researching the outside-of-Europe civilazation) got rid of was very popular among Western scholars’ the notion of “Eurocentric”, attached importance to the researchs about the “outside of Europe, outside of Western” civilizations in his works. It could be taken in Southeast Asia - Vietnam as a example for his view. In this article, the author aims to clarify some issues related to Southeast Asia - Vietnam basing on several typical works and under his view.