This is the last volume of argument in the initial publication of A study and covers serious topics for the value of the work. Published in 1954, during the Cold war, the tone is a bit grim. AJT discusses Renaissances of former civilizations by their related Civilizations. The energy that can be released by a renaissance is discussed as is possible pitfalls in the section labelled "The Consequences of Necromancy".
Then the book turns to "Law and Freedom in History" a very speculative section dealing with the problems of human affairs and the conflict with what might be seen to be "Laws of Nature" and whether or not those laws are implacable. AJT doesn't think so and applies some examples to the question.
We come at last to "The prospects of western Civilization", the most contentious part of the book. We are in trouble, mostly because of our current infatuation with 19th century concepts of Nationalism, and our very dangerous level of lethal technology, but AJT has hope, because...well we have to get up in the morning. He advances alternate possible approaches to world order in a post-nuclear age, and outlines some probable functions of a future world order. Heady stuff, and well worth a rereading in the hurly-burly of our present situation. His final appendix, a critique of Gibbon's observations on the fall of the Roman Empire in the west is a fun time. ( )