On a larger scale, he saw that history moved through periods governed by universal states followed by shorter periods of religious rule. He believed that the history of a civilization was largely the record of its response to a unique challenge. In A Study of History (1934–1961), he argued that civilizations emerge when faced with physical or social challenges. Toynbee was influenced by his reading of Spengler's work. According to him, these cycles repeat themselves as new societies develop. In The Decline of the West (1918–1922), Spengler proposed that individual societies have a life cycle similar to living organisms: they experience periods of growth, maturity, and decline. In the twentieth century, Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) and Arnold Toynbee (1889–1975) presented important theories of historical cycles.
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