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Biography of Norman
Angell
This information is taken from the
Official Web Site of The Nobel
Foundation
www.nobel.se
Visit the site to read the 1933
Presentation Speech and to view a
bibliography of Angell Lane's work.
Ralph Norman Angell Lane (December 26,
1872-October 7, 1967) was one of six
children of Thomas Angell Lane and Mary
(Brittain) Lane. Raised in a well-to-do
but unpretentious Victorian household in
Holbeach in Lincolnshire, England, he
was influenced by his older sister
Carrie and by extensive reading of such
authors as Herbert Spencer, Huxley,
Voltaire, and Darwin. He discovered
Mill's Essay on Liberty at the age of
twelve and for a long time considered it
his prime source of intellectual
excitement.
Having attended elementary schools in
England, the Lycée de St. Omer in
France, a business school in London, and
- while editing a biweekly English paper
published in Geneva - a year of courses
at the University of Geneva, he became
convinced that the Old World was
hopelessly entangled in insoluble
problems. At seventeen, then, he decided
to emigrate to America. The young man
headed directly for the West Coast of
the United States, where for seven years
he worked as a vine planter, an
irrigation-ditch digger, a cowpuncher, a
California homesteader (after filing for
American citizenship), a mail-carrier
for his neighbourhood, a prospector,
and, finally, a reporter for the St.
Louis Globe-Democrat and later the San
Francisco Chronicle.
After tending to some family affairs
which had called him back to England in
1898, Angell went to Paris where he
engaged in newspaper work, first as
sub-editor of the English language Daily
Messenger, then as staff contributor to
Éclair. Meanwhile he acted as
correspondent for some American papers
to which he sent dispatches on the
progress of the Dreyfus case. His
experience with the American temper in
the Spanish-American War, with French
chauvinism in the Dreyfus affair, and
with British jingoism in the Boer War
prompted his first book Patriotism under
Three Flags: A Plea for Rationalism in
Politics" (1903). In 1905, Angell
accepted the editorship of the Paris
edition of Lord Northcliffe's Daily
Mail, resigning in 1912 to devote
himself completely to writing and
lecturing. Angell had by that time
become famous.
In 1909 he had published a small book,
Europe's Optical Illusion, using for the
first time the name Norman Angell which
he later legalized. In 1910 he expanded
this work considerably, retitling it The
Great Illusion. This book was translated
into twenty-five languages, sold over
two million copies, and gave rise to a
theory popularly called «Norman
Angellism». This theory, as stated in
the book's Preface, holds that military
and political power give a nation no
commercial advantage, that it is an
economic impossibility for one nation to
seize or destroy the wealth of another,
or for one nation to enrich itself by
subjugating another. In the next
forty-one years, Angell published
forty-one books distinguished for their
rationality, clarity, painstaking
analysis of fallacies, and earnestness
tempered by good humor. The Fruits of
Victory (1921) shows how the results of
World War I bore out the propositions
explained in The Great Illusion; The
Money Game (1928) unmasks the economic
warfare which has its roots in the
«mercantilist illusion», a
misunderstanding of the nature of money,
and explains a card game he had invented
to make currency problems «visual»; The
Unseen Assassins (1932) analyzes some of
the implications of patriotism,
nationalism, and imperialism and
discusses the problem of educating the
common man; The Great Illusion: 1933
(1933) applies the thesis of 1909 to
1933 and states the case for cooperation
as the basis for civilization; The
Menace to Our National Defence (1934)
proposes internationalization of civil
aviation and collective defense by the
air arm; The Great Illusion - Now (1938)
updates his basic conception once again;
Peace with the Dictators? (1938) deals
with the theme of collective security;
The Steep Places (1947) probes the
limitations of national sovereignty in
an organized society; After All (1951)
is the urbane autobiography of a man,
adventurous and evangelical, yet
studious and reasonable, who is still
looking for the formula that will enable
men to achieve international peace.
Meanwhile, he wrote regularly for
newspapers and journals and from 1928 to
1931 edited Foreign Affairs. He did not
confine his activity to the writing
desk. From 1929 to 1931 he was a Labour
member of Parliament and member of the
Consultative Committee of the
Parliamentary Labor Party, but declined
to stand for re-election because he felt
«better fitted to present the case for
internationalism to the public direct,
freed from party ties». He was knighted
for public service in 1931. He was a
member of the Council of the Royal
Institute of International Affairs, an
executive of the Comité mondial contre
la guerre et le fascisme [World
Committee against War and Fascism], an
active member of the Executive Committee
of the League of Nations Union, and
president of the Abyssinia Association.
For over half a century, he travelled
the «lecture circuit» almost every year;
at the age of ninety he went on a
two-month lecture tour of the United
States.
Angell was a slightly built man, about
five feet tall, ascetic of countenance,
patient and courteous in manner. He died
at ninety-four. |
