Sir Norman Angell
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane)
The Nobel Peace Prize 1933
Born: 26 December 1872, Holbeach, United Kingdom
Died: 7 October 1967, Croydon, United Kingdom
Residence at the time of the award: United Kingdom
Role: Writer; Member, Commission Exécutive de la Société des Nations (Executive Committee of the League of Nations Union and of National Peace Council)
Prize motivation: “for having exposed by his pen the illusion of war and presented a convincing plea for international cooperation and peace”
Sir Norman Angell received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1934.
Prize share: 1/1
Information and Education Bring Peace
The British journalist and author Norman Angell is the only person to have been awarded the Peace Prize for publishing a book. In 1910 he wrote The Great Illusion, of which over two million copies were sold and which was translated into 25 languages.
Angell analyzed the nature of war, concluding that the danger of mutual destruction of both aggressors and defenders had made armed conflict unprofitable. He believed in peaceful development, because the expansion of free trade would create greater interdependence between states and because improved education would make war irrational and uncivilized. Angell's peace concept became known as “angellism” and was disseminated through a network of societies for peace. The outbreak in August 1914 of World War I appeared to refute his main thesis, however.
When in the autumn of 1934 the Nobel Committee awarded Angell the Prize that had been reserved from 1933, he was praised for his work as educator and defender of the League of Nations.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
