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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Gotha bomber
German twin-engined biplane bomber, the principal strategic bomber of the German air force in World War I from 1917 onwards. Although early models (G1 and G2) were used on the Balkan and Eastern...

Gotha, Almanach de
Annual survey of the European royalty, titled aristocracy, and diplomatic ranks, published in Gotha, Germany, 1763-1944. The assets and archives were confiscated following...

Gotham, Tales of the Mad Men of
Collection of jests representing the absurd doings and sayings of the people of Gotham, a parish near Trent junction in Nottinghamshire, England. The simplicity of the inhabitants has become...

Gothic architecture
Style of architecture that flourished in Europe from the mid-12th century to the end of the 15th century. It is characterized by the vertical lines of tall pillars and spires, greater height in...

Gothic art
Style that succeeded Romanesque as the most popular force in European art and prevailed in most countries, particularly in northern Europe, from the middle of the 12th century to the 16th century,...

Gothic Line
In World War II, German defensive line in Italy extending from south of La Spezia on the west coast, through the Apuan mountains and the Apennine passes, and then down the Foglia valley to the...

gothic novel
Literary genre established by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and marked by mystery, violence, and horror; other pre-20th century practitioners were the English writers Ann...

Gothic Revival
The resurgence of interest in Gothic architecture, as displayed in the late 18th and 19th centuries, notably in Britain and the USA. Gothic Revival buildings include Charles Barry and Augustus...

Gottheil, Richard James Horatio
(1862-1936) English-born US academic. He was professor of rabbinical literature and Semitic languages at Columbia University from 1892 until his death. In 1896 he became chief of the Oriental Division of the...

Gottlieb, Adolph
(1903-1974) US painter. He was a cofounder of the New York City based avant-garde group, The Ten (1935-40). By 1941 he was painting compartmentalized canvases containing symbolic animal and plant forms,...

Gottschalk, Alfred
(1930) German-born US rabbi and educator. In 1971 he became president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He belonged to a number of Jewish, academic, and civic organizations...

Gottschall, Rudolf von
(1823-1909) German dramatist, poet, and critic. Among his dramas are the historical comedy Pitt und Fox 1854, the tragedy Mazeppa 1859, and Katharina Howard 1872. In two epic poems, Die Göttin 1853 and Carlo...

Gottsched, Johann Christoph
(1700-1766) German critic and writer. He tried to abolish the bombastic affectations of the second Silesian school and substitute a nobler drama based on French models. His Kritische Dichtkunst appeared 1730,...

Gottwald, Klement
(1896-1953) Czechoslovakian communist president. He criticized the Munich capitulation in 1938, and went into exile in Moscow, where he remained until 1945, meeting Edvard Beneš, the head of the...

gouache
Painting medium in which watercolour is mixed with opaque white pigment. Applied in the same way as watercolour, gouache gives a chalky finish similar to that of tempera painting. It has long been...

Gough, Hubert de la Poer
(1870-1963) British general. As commander of the Fifth Army 1916-18, he led it through the battles of the Somme 1916 and Ypres 1917, where he was criticized for the high rate of casualties. He was initially...

Goujon, Jean
(c. 1510-c. 1565) French Renaissance sculptor. His style developed under the influence of Primaticcio and Cellini at Fontainebleau, and is exemplified by the slender nymphs in bas relief on his Fountain of the...

Goulart, João
(1918-1976) Brazilian politician and president 1961-64. A weak and vacillating leader, he alienated moderate opinion by flirting with nationalist and left-wing groups. His administration was plagued with...

goulaun
In Ireland, a locally used term for a prehistoric megalith of standing stones. ...

Gould, Bryan Charles
(1939) New Zealand-born British left-of-centre Labour politician, an unsuccessful challenger for the party leadership in 1992. Born in New Zealand, Gould, from a state school background, won a...

Gould, Chester
(1900-1985) US cartoonist. He created the comic strip Fillum Fables in 1924 for Hearst's Chicago newspaper American, and in 1931 he created for syndication the `Dick Tracy` strip, featuring a square-jawed...

Gould, Gerald
(1885-1936) English poet and journalist. He was on the staff of the Daily Herald and later of the Saturday Review. His Collected Poems appeared 1929. His critical works include an `Essay on the Nature of the...

Gould, Nathaniel
(1857-1919) English novelist. He worked as a sporting journalist in Sydney, Australia, and wrote about 130 sporting novels. Among the best known are The Double Event 1891, The Miner's Cup 1896, A Stable Mystery...

Gourad Hamadou, Barkat
(1930) Djibouti politician, prime minister 1978-2001. Barkat Gourad Hamadou, a member of the nationalist People's Progress Assembly, had served as prime minister since 1978, and was reappointed by...

Gourmont, Rémy de
(1858-1915) French critic and novelist. A prolific essayist, he influentially disseminated the aesthetic doctrines of French Symbolism, committed to the relativity...

Gouru
Member of a Mande-speaking people of Côte d'Ivoire who originally lived as hunters and now practise shifting cultivation. They live in patrilineal villages; the elders make up the village...

goût grec
French anti-rococo style of the second half of the 18th century, inspired by classical art and architecture. Furnishings decorated with urns, heavy festoons, and meander...

Gouvion St Cyr, Laurent
(1764-1830) French marshal. Born at Toul, France, he took part in the Prussian and Polish campaigns of 1807 and 1808, and in August 1812 defeated the Russians at Polotsk, for which he was created a marshal of...

government
Any system whereby political authority is exercised. Modern systems of government distinguish between liberal democracies, totalitarian (one-party) states, and autocracies (authoritarian, relying...

government expenditure
Another name for public spending. ...

governor-general
Representative of the British government in a Commonwealth country that regards the British sovereign as head of state. The first Commonwealth country to receive such a representative was Canada in...

governor, colonial
Representative of the sovereign in British colonies, in most cases assisted by an executive council. The governor is normally commander-in-chief of all forces in the governor's territory and is...

Gowda, H D Deve
(1933) Indian political leader, prime minister 1996-97. Representing the centrist Janata Party, he became chief minister of the state of Karnataka in 1994. Chosen as prime minister in May 1996, he led a...

Gower, John
(c. 1330-1408) English poet. He is remembered for his Confessio Amantis/Lover's Confession, written in English (1386-90) and consisting of tales and discussions about love taken from the Roman poet Ovid, the ...

Gowon, Yakubu
(1934) Nigerian politician, head of state 1966-75. He became army chief of staff following a coup in January 1966, and five months later seized power in a further coup. Unsuccessful in his efforts to...

Goyen, Jan Josephszoon van
(1596-1656) Dutch landscape painter. He was active in Leiden, Haarlem, and from 1631 in The Hague. A pioneer of the realist style of landscape with Ruisdael, he sketched from nature and studied...

Gozzano, Guido Gustavo
(1883-1916) Italian poet. He is the best known of the ironic, melancholic Crepuscular (twilight) poets and clearly shows the influence of Gabriele D'Annunzio and Giovanni Pascoli. He also wrote rhymes and...

Gozzi, Count Carlo
(1720-1806) Italian dramatist. He wrote L'amore delle tre melarance/The Love for Three Oranges 1761 and other `fantastic plays`, which combined serious criticism of contemporary social and intellectual...

Gozzi, Gasparo
(1713-1786) Italian poet and essayist. His works are remarkable for their purity of language and elegance of diction. His Sermoni, written in the style of Horace, is his finest work in verse. Il mondo morale...

GPU
Name (1922-23) for the security service of the Soviet Union; later the KGB. ...

Grabbe, Christian Dietrich
(1801-1836) German dramatist. His plays anticipate realism, but they lack cohesion and the action is often confused and contradictory. Among them are Don Juan und Faust 1829, Friedrich Barbarossa 1829, Heinrich...

Gracchus
In ancient Rome, two brothers who worked for agrarian reform. As tribune (magistrate) 133 BC, Tiberius tried to redistribute land away from the large slave-labour farms in order to benefit the...

grace
In Christianity and Sikhism, a free or unmerited gift or privilege bestowed by God, whose favour, or revealing of himself, cannot be earned or attained by human efforts. In Christian thinking, grace...

Grace, (Chris)Topher
(1978) US actor. His film debut as a rich, arrogant, teenaged drug user in Steven Soderbergh's Academy Award-winning drama Traffic (2000) earned him wide acclaim. Previously he starred in the popular...

Grace, Virginia (Randolph)
(1901-1994) US archaeologist. Her life work on stamped amphora handles evolved from her PhD thesis submitted to Bryn Mawr College in 1934. Grace catalogued more than 150,000 stamped amphora handles from...

Graces
In Greek mythology, three goddesses (Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia), daughters of Zeus and Hera, personifications of pleasure, charm, and beauty; the inspirers of the arts and the sciences. ...

gradation
In art, the gradual blending of one tint or tone with another. When painting, gradation can be most easily and effectively achieved by thinning down the medium or by adding progressively more white...

Grade, Michael
(1943) English television executive. He was chair of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) 2004-06 and of ITV from 2007. He started in sports journalism and worked for the family theatrical agency...

gradualist
US abolitionist who sought to end slavery through gradual and legal means. The gradualist faction of the abolitionist movement tried to convince slaveholders that slavery was unethical and sinful...

Grady, Henry Woodfin
(1850-1889) US journalist and orator. As editor and coowner of the Atlanta Constitution (1880-89), he helped raise morale in the postbellum South through positive proposals for redevelopment. His philosophy...

Graeae
In Greek mythology, three old women, Pemphredo, Dino, and Enys, sisters of the Gorgons. Their hair was grey from birth and they had only one eye and one tooth between them. ...

Graf Spee, Admiral
German pocket battleship of World War II. It sailed from Germany just before the outbreak of war and sank nine British merchant ships in the Atlantic. It was damaged in the Battle of the River Plate...

Graf, Arturo
(1848-1913) Italian poet and scholar. His collections of poetry include Medusa 1880, Le Danaïdi 1897, Morgana 1901, and Poemetti drammatici 1905. His poems are serious and philosophical, often sombre in tone....

Graf, Urs
(1485-1527/28) Swiss painter, engraver, and goldsmith. He served as a mercenary and his drawings are obsessed with the life and death of contemporary soldiers, portraying the horrors with stark authenticity. He...

graffiti art
Art inspired by urban graffiti. Critical and financial interest in graffiti art emerged in the 1970s in New York, with artists and critics seeing graffiti as a direct and genuine expression of urban...

Grafton, Richard
(died 1572) English chronicler and printer. He produced a modified version of Miles Coverdale's Bible in 1537, and in the following year went with Coverdale to Paris to print a revised version. However, the...

Grafton, Sue
(1940) US writer. In the 1980s she created a popular crime fiction series, known as the alphabetical series, featuring the no-nonsense private detective Kinsey Millhone. She has published a new...

Graham
Family name of dukes of Montrose. ...

Graham, Billy (William Franklin)
(1918) US Protestant evangelist, known for the dramatic staging and charismatic eloquence of his preaching. Graham has preached to millions during worldwide crusades and on television, bringing many...

Graham, Colin
(1931-2007) English stage director. He directed the premieres of many operas, particularly the works of English composer Benjamin Britten. He was director of productions for the English Opera Group 1961-75,...

Graham, Ennis
Pseudonym of Scottish writer Mary Molesworth. ...

Graham, Katharine
(1917-2001) US publisher. Following the 1963 suicide of her husband Philip Graham, she became president of a communications empire that included the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine, among several other...

Graham, Stephen
(1884-1975) English novelist and travel writer. His much-discussed novel Private in the Guards 1919 purports to reflect the degrading influence of military discipline. His other publications include A...

Graham, W(illiam) S(ydney)
(1918-1986) Scottish poet. His early poetry, published in Cage Without Grievance (1942), was compared with that of G M Hopkins, James Joyce, and Dylan Thomas. Subsequently he worked on the development of his...

Grahame, Kenneth
(1859-1932) Scottish-born writer. The early volumes of sketches of childhood, The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898), were followed by his masterpiece The Wind in the Willows (1908) which became a...

Gramatky, Hardie
(1907-1979) US author and illustrator. He is remembered for his tugboat series for children, notably Little Toot (1939). Gramatky was head animator for Walt Disney productions, Hollywood (1930-36). He then...

Gramm, Phil
(1942) US senator. Phil Gramm was first elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat, but had his House Budget Committee seat removed because he chose to co-author the Reagan economic program....

grammar school
In the UK, secondary school catering for children of high academic ability, about 20% of the total, usually measured by the Eleven Plus examination. Most grammar schools have now been replaced by...

Gramsci, Antonio
(1891-1937) Italian Marxist who attempted to unify social theory and political practice. He helped to found the Italian Communist Party in 1921 and was elected to parliament in 1924, but was imprisoned by the...

Granada, Luis de
(1504-1588) Spanish preacher. He achieved great fame as a preacher, and was ultimately appointed confessor and counsellor to Catherine, the queen regent. Born at Granada, Spain, his mother...

Grand Design
In the early 17th century, a plan attributed by the French minister Sully to Henry IV of France (who was assassinated before he could carry it out) for a great Protestant union against the Holy...

Grand Guignol
Genre of short horror play originally produced at the Grand Guignol theatre in Montmartre, Paris (named after the bloodthirsty character Guignol in late 18th-century marionette plays). ...

Grand Old Party
Popular name for the US Republican Party. ...

Grand Remonstrance
Petition passed by the English Parliament in November 1641 that listed all the alleged misdeeds of Charles I-`the evils under which we have now many years suffered`. It then went on to blame...

Grandbois, Alain
(1900-1975) French-Canadian poet. His volumes of poetry include Les Iles de la Nuit 1944, Rivages de l'homme 1948, and L'Etoile pourpre 1957. Poèmes 1963 set the seal on his reputation. His influence on...

Grandi, Dino, Count
(1895-1988) Italian politician who challenged Mussolini for leadership of the Italian Fascist Party in 1921 and was subsequently largely responsible for Mussolini's downfall in July 1943. Grandi, a leading...

Grange Movement
In US history, a farmers' protest in the South and Midwest states against economic hardship and exploitation. The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, formed in 1867, was a network of local...

Grange, Kenneth Henry
(1929) English industrial designer. He was among the first British designers to work as a consultant to industry and, from the late 1950s, has created a vast number of lasting designs for a range of...

Granger, Clive
(1934) British economist and academic. Granger shared with US economist Robert Engle the 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their discoveries in the analysis of time series data. In...

Granger, James
(1723-1776) English biographer. He published a Biographical History of England 1769, which had blank pages for the insertion of engraved portraits, of which he himself collected 14,000. It started a fashion for...

Granson, Battle of
Swiss victory over Charles the Bold in 1476 at Granson (now called Grandson) on the southeast end of Lake Neuchâtel. The town was captured by the Swiss in 1475 but the Duke of Burgundy recaptured...

Grant tank
US medium tank M3 (known as the `General Lee`), modified for British service in World War II. It was redesigned so that the radio could be carried in the turret where it could be operated by the...

Grant, Duncan (James Corrowr)
(1885-1978) Scottish painter and designer. A pioneer of post-Impressionism in the UK, he was influenced by Paul Cezanne and the Fauves, and became a member of the Bloomsbury Group. He lived with the painter...

Grant, James Augustus
(1827-1892) Scottish soldier and explorer who served in India and Abyssinia and, with Captain John Speke, explored the sources of the Nile 1860-63. Accounts of his travels include A Walk across Africa 1864...

Grant, Julia
(1826-1902) US first lady, much admired by the public for her style while in the White House. She married the future US president Ulysses S Grant in 1848, and throughout their marriage helped him cope with his...

Grant, Ulysses S(impson)
(1822-1885) US Civil War general in chief for the Union and 18th president of the USA 1869-77. As a Republican president, he carried through a liberal Reconstruction policy in the South. He failed to suppress...

granthi
In Sikhism, the man or woman who reads from the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book) during the service, which he or she may lead. The granthi also looks after the Guru Granth Sahib, taking it out in the...

Granvelle, Antoine Perrenot de
(1517-1586) French diplomat and prelate, adviser to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Philip II of Spain. As president of the Netherlands' Council of State (1559-64), he introduced the Inquisition to the...

Granville-Barker, Harley Granville
(1877-1946) English theatre director and author. He was director and manager with J E Vedrenne at the Royal Court Theatre, London, 1904-18, producing plays by Shaw, Yeats, Ibsen, Galsworthy, and Masefield....

Granville, George Leveson-Gower
(1815-1891) English politician. He was a member of Parliament 1836-46, and became vice-president of the Board of Trade in 1848 and foreign secretary in 1851. In 1868 he was colonial secretary in the first...

Grass, Günter Wilhelm
(1927) German writer. The grotesque humour and socialist feeling of his novels Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1959) and Der Butt/The Flounder (1977) are also characteristic of many of his poems. Deeply...

Grasso, Ella
(1919-1989) US politician. A Democrat, she served in the state house of representatives (1953-55), becoming Connecticut's secretary of state (1958-70). In the US House of Representatives (1971-75) she...

Gratian
(AD 359-383) Roman emperor from 375. On the death of his father, Valentinian I, he became emperor in the western part of the empire (Britain, Spain, and Gaul) and Valentinian II, his half-brother, became...

Grattan, Henry
(1746-1820) Irish politician. He entered the Irish parliament in 1775, led the patriot opposition, and obtained free trade and legislative independence for Ireland in 1782. After failing to prevent the Act of...

Grau San Martín, Ramón
(1887-1969) Cuban politician, president 1933-34 and 1944-48. He helped overthrow the dictator Gerardo Machado in 1933, and his successor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, to become provisional president himself....

Graveley, Samuel Lee, Jr
(1922) US navy officer. In 1961 he became the first African-American ever to command a US Navy ship, and in 1971 the first to attain the rank of rear admiral. His speciality was naval communications, and...

Gravelotte, Battle of
Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War 18 August 1870; the battle took place on a ridge between the villages of the same names, about 10 km/6 mi west of Metz. Although the Prussians gained an...

Graves, Michael
(1934) US architect. His work, in the postmodernist idiom, is distinctive for the refined, elegant manner in which it blends classical and vernacular elements. Originally a member of the New York Five...

Graves, Morris Cole
(1910-2001) US painter. He travelled in Japan and China (1928-30), and was influenced by Eastern philosophy, as seen in his gouache, Bird in the Spirit (c. 1941). Long based in California, he evolved an...

Graves, Robert (Ranke)
(1895-1985) English poet and writer. He was severely wounded on the Somme in World War I, and his frank autobiography Goodbye to All That (1929) contains outstanding descriptions of the war. Collected Poems...