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

Lewis, (William) Arthur
(1915-1991) British economist. His Theory of Economic Growth (1955) was one of the first textbooks in the post-war era to explore the problems of the developing world. Lewis shared the Nobel Prize for...

Lewis, Alun
(1915-1944) Welsh poet and short-story writer. His austere sense of vocation as a writer and his disciplined style of writing marked him out as a poet of great promise, as shown by his first published volume...

Lewis, C(larence) I(rving)
(1883-1964) US philosopher. He developed a logic of strict implication, a pragmatic theory of knowledge, and a naturalistic value theory. His works include An Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation (1946). Lewis...

Lewis, Cecil Day
Irish poet; see Cecil Day-Lewis. ...

Lewis, Delano E
(1938) US lawyer, communications business executive, and broadcasting executive. In 1963 he was appointed an attorney for the US Department of Justice. In 1965 he joined an office of the US Equal...

Lewis, Dixon Hall
(1802-1848) US politician. A Democrat, he represented the state of Alabama in the US House of Representatives (1829-44), where he championed states' rights. In the US Senate (1844-48) he opposed the United...

Lewis, Dominic Bevan Wyndham
(1894-1969) Welsh journalist and biographer. His contributions to the Daily Express as `Beachcomber` 1919-24 made his reputation as a satirically witty writer. From 1924 he wrote for the Daily Mail, the...

Lewis, Flora
(c. 1923) US journalist. A longtime foreign correspondent for the New York Times, she was Paris bureau chief in the 1970s. Later, as chief foreign affairs columnist, she became widely known for her...

Lewis, John Frederick
(1805-1876) English painter. His pictures of Egyptian subjects - for example, The Hareem (1850; Victoria and Albert Museum, London) - combine minuteness of detail with brilliance of colour. They were...

Lewis, John L(lewellyn)
(1880-1969) US labour leader. President of the United Mine Workers (UMW) 1920-60, he was largely responsible for the adoption of national mining safety standards in the USA. His militancy and the miners'...

Lewis, Lucy M
(1902-1992) US potter. A leading artisan of her era, she learned her craft by watching her great-aunt Helice Valeo. She is noted for her hand-built, unglazed red earthenware ornamented with a variety of...

Lewis, Matthew Gregory
(1775-1818) English writer. He was known as `Monk` Lewis from his Gothic horror romance The Monk 1796; subsequent editions were expurgated. He also wrote plays, including The Castle...

Lewis, Meriwether
(1774-1809) US explorer. With William Clark, he led a US government survey, later known as the Lewis and Clark expedition, across North America from St Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River 1804-06. The...

Lexington
Town in Middlesex County, east Massachusetts; population (2000 est) 30,400. It is located 17 km/11 mi northwest of Boston, of which it is a mainly residential suburb. Industries include printing and...

Lexington and Concord, Battle of
First battle of the American Revolution, 19 April 1775, at Lexington, Massachusetts. The first shots were fired when British troops, sent to seize illegal military stores and arrest rebel leaders...

Ley, Robert
(1890-1945) German Nazi administrator. He was responsible for directing Germany's labour needs both before and during World War II. On 16 May 1945 he was captured by US troops. He was eventually tried at...

Leyden, Lucas van
Dutch painter; see Lucas van Leyden. ...

Leyden, Siege of
During the Netherlands War of Independence, siege of the Dutch city of Leyden (now Leiden) from 26 May-3 October 1574 by Walloon and German troops. The Dutch force was little more than the town...

Leyendecker, J(oseph) C(hristian)
(1874-1951) German-born US illustrator. He became famous for his advertisements for the `Arrow Collar Man`, and his stylized covers for such periodicals as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post....

Leypoldt, Frederic
(1835-1884) German-born US publisher. He established a publishing firm with Henry Holt in 1866. He was editor and publisher (from 1868) of the journal that became Publishers' Weekly and...

Leyte Gulf, Battle of the
In World War II, US naval victory over Japan 17-25 October 1944, to the east of the Philippines. The biggest naval battle in history, involving 216 US warships, 2 Australian vessels, and 64...

Lezgi
Member of a people of the northern Caucasus, numbering one million (1994 est), living mainly in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Their language is Caucasian and their religion Islam. History A free tribal...

Leśmian, Boleslaw
(1878-1937) Polish poet and essayist. He was an innovative writer and a forerunner of existentialism. He published only a limited number of collections, including Sad rozstajny/Crossroads Orchard 1912,...

Li Dazhao (or Li Ta-chao)
(1888-1927) Chinese revolutionary. He was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party, and his interpretation of Marxism as applied to China had a profound influence on Mao Zedong. In 1927, when the...

Li Hongzhang (or Li Hung-chang)
(1823-1901) Chinese politician, promulgator of Western ideas and modernization. He was governor general of Zhili (or Chihli) and high commissioner of the Northern Ports 1870-95, responsible for foreign...

Li Lisan
(1899-1867) Chinese communist politician, party leader 1927-30. He became a leading figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a key proponent of the conventional Leninist and Russian-supported line of...

Li Peng
(1928) Chinese communist politician, a member of the Politburo from 1985, and prime minister 1987-98. A conservative hardliner, during the pro-democracy demonstrations...

Li Po
(c. 705-762) Taoist Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty (618-907). He used traditional literary forms, but his exuberance, the boldness of his imagination, and the intensity of his feeling have won him...

Li Xiannian
(1909-1992) Chinese communist politician, member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo from 1956, and state president 1983-88. He fell from favour during the 1966-69 Cultural Revolution, but was...

liability
In accounting, a financial obligation. Liabilities are placed alongside assets on a balance sheet to show the wealth of the individual or company concerned at a given date. Business organizations...

Liao dynasty
Family that ruled part of northeastern China and Manchuria 945-1125 during the Song era. It was founded by cavalry-based Qidan (Khidan) people, Mongolian-speakers who gradually became...

Liaoyang, Battle of
Inconclusive clash between Japanese and Russian forces during the Russo-Japanese War 25 August-4 September 1904, in Manchuria, about 80 km/50 mi southwest of Mukden (now Shenyang). The battle...

Liaquat Ali Khan, Nawabzada
(1895-1951) Indian politician, deputy leader of the Muslim League 1940-47, first prime minister of Pakistan from 1947. He was assassinated by objectors to his peace policy with India. ...

Lib.
Abbreviation for Liberal, a political party in the UK. ...

libation
Wine or other drink poured out in honour of a deity. Sacrifices were often accompanied by libations, and the Romans at their meals made drink-offerings to their household gods. In Shinto...

Libau
German merchant ship used to run guns and ammunition to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) for the projected Easter rising 1916 under Roger Casement. The ship, commanded by a German naval officer,...

Libbey, Edward Drummond
(1854-1925) US glassmaker and philanthropist. He opened the Libbey Glass Company in Toledo, Ohio, in 1888, sponsoring a demonstration plant at the Chicago exposition of 1893. His success depended heavily on the...

libel
In law, defamation published in a permanent form, such as in a newspaper, book, or broadcast. In English law a statement is defamatory if it lowers the plaintiff in the estimation of...

Liber
Ancient Italian deity who, with his female counterpart Libera, was patron of agricultural fertility and especially of viticulture. He was often identified with Dionysus and Libera with Persephone. A...

Liber Studiorum
Series of etched and mezzotinted plates by the English painter J M W Turner designed to illustrate various styles of landscape, published 1807-19. Of a projected 100...

Liber Veritatis
Collection of about 200 drawings by the French artist Claude Lorrain compiled by him from 1644 (Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England). It was made up in book form as a souvenir of paintings he had...

Liberal Democrats
UK political party of the centre, led since 1999 by Charles Kennedy. Britain's third main party, the Liberal Democrats are successors to the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, which...

Liberal Party
British political party, the successor to the Whig Party, with an ideology of liberalism. In the 19th century it represented the interests of commerce and industry. Its outstanding leaders were...

Liberal Party, Australian
Political party established 1944 by Robert Menzies, after a Labor landslide, and derived from the former United Australia Party. After...

liberalism
Political and social theory that supports representative government, freedom of the press, speech, and worship, the abolition of class privileges, the use...

Liberation Army of Palestine
Loosely organized Palestinian group active in attacks on Israeli armed troops from 1987; see Intifada. ...

liberation theology
Christian theory of Jesus' prime role as the `Liberator`, a representative of the poor and devoted to freeing them from oppression. Enthusiastically adopted by Christians (ma ...

Liberator, the
Title given to Simón Bolívar, South American revolutionary leader; also a title given to Daniel O'Connell, Irish political leader; and to Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean revolutionary. ...

Liberia
Country in West Africa, bounded north by Guinea, east by Côte d'Ivoire, south and southwest by the Atlantic Ocean, and northwest by Sierra Leone. Government Liberia has a multiparty presidential...

Liberia-Peters, Maria
(1942) Netherlands Antilles centre-right politician, prime minister 1984-85 and 1988-93. Representing the National People's Party (PNP), she became the Netherlands Antilles' first woman...

Liberman, Alex(ander Semeonovitch)
(1912-1999) Russian artist and fashion editor. As art director (1943-62) and then editorial director (1962) of Condé Nast Publications, he oversaw such prestigious magazines as House and Garden and Vanity...

libertarianism
Political theory that upholds the rights of the individual above all other considerations and seeks to minimize the power of the state to the safeguarding of those rights. At its most extreme it...

liberties
In the middle ages, freedom from direct royal jurisdiction, usually granted to border territories in return for protecting the border area from raiders. The privilege was granted in cases such as...

liberty
In its medieval sense, a franchise, or collection of privileges, granted to an individual or community by the king, and the area over which this franchise extended. ...

Liberty Bell
The bell that was rung in 1776 on the occasion of the adoption by the new US Congress of the Declaration of Independence. It was cast in London 1752, with...

Liberty engine
US-manufactured aircraft engine based on a Rolls-Royce design, used in a number of aircraft and tanks in World War I. It was designed specifically for mass-production, in order to meet wartime...

Liberty Leading the People
Painting by the French artist Eugèe Delacroix 1830 (Louvre, Paris). It represents the French revolution of 1830 and its three-day war of the barricades in Paris, 27-29 July 1830. The events,...

Liberty Loans
Internal loans raised in the USA during World War I. There were four separate issues of these loans during the war, and after the armistice a fifth, known as the Victory Liberty Loan. The American...

Liberty Party
The first US political party with an abolitionist platform, founded in 1839. It opposed the annexation of Texas. Liberty Party members believed in using political means to help abolish slavery....

Liberty tank
US name for the British Mark VIII tank, adopted by the Anglo-American Tank Committee for production in both the UK and USA in World War I. None...

liberty, equality, fraternity
Motto of the French republic from 1793. It was changed 1940-44 under the Vichy government to `work, family, fatherland`. ...

Liberty, Statue of
Monument on Liberty Island in New York harbour. The 92-m/302-ft statue was presented to the US people by the French and dedicated in 1886, marking the centenary of American Independence and...

Libeskind, Daniel
(1946) Polish-born US architect. Associated with the deconstructivist movement, he is best known for designing major cultural institutions, such as the Felix Nussbaum Haus (the city museum of Osnabrück,...

Libitina
Ancient Italian earth goddess connected with luxuriant nature and voluptuous pleasure. Her association with the underworld led to her transformation into the goddess of death and her later...

LIBOR
Loan rates for a specified period that are offered to first-class banks in the London interbank market. Banks link their lending to LIBOR as an alternative to...

Libra
Novel 1988 by US writer Don DeLillo. Using a complex structure, it tells the story of the assassination of President John F Kennedy seen through the life of Lee Harvey Oswald, and deals with the...

library
Collection of information (usually in the form of books) held for common use. The earliest was in Nineveh in Babylonian times. The first public library was opened in Athens in 330 BC. All ancient...

Libya
Country in North Africa, bounded north by the Mediterranean Sea, east by Egypt, southeast by Sudan, south by Chad and Niger, and west by Algeria and Tunisia. Government The 1977 constitution created...

licence
Document issued by a government or other recognized authority conveying permission to the holder to do something otherwise prohibited, and designed to facilitate accurate records, the maintenance of...

licensing laws
Legislation governing the sale of alcoholic drinks. In the UK, sales can only be made by pubs, restaurants, shops, and clubs which hold licences obtained from licensing justices. The hours during...

Lichnowsky, Karl Max, Prince
(1860-1928) German diplomat. In 1912 he became ambassador to the UK. He was expelled.from the Prussian Upper House and fled to Switzerland after his distaste for German policy following the Sarajevo murders...

Lichtenstein, Roy
(1923-1997) US pop artist. He is best known for using advertising imagery and comic-strip techniques, often focusing on popular ideals of romance and heroism, as in Whaam! (1963; Tate Gallery, London). He has...

Lichtenstein, Tehilla
(1893-1973) Palestinian-born religious leader. The leader of the Society of Jewish Science, she was the head of the Congress of Jewish Science and the first woman to occupy a Jewish pulpit in...

Licinius, Valerius Licinianus
(c.AD 250-324) Emperor of the eastern Roman provinces 307-24. In 308 he was raised to the rank of Augustus of the west by the emperor Galerius, but declined to exercise it, but when Galerius died 311 he and...

lictor
In ancient Rome, an attendant of a magistrate. In processions the lictors carried the fasces (symbolic bundles of rods) in front of the magistrates. Their town dress was the toga, but in triumphal...

Liddell Hart, Basil Henry
(1895-1970) British military strategist. He was an exponent of mechanized warfare, and his ideas were adopted in Germany in 1935 in creating the 1st Panzer Division, combining motorized infantry and tanks. From...

Liddell, Eric Henry
(1902-1945) Scottish athlete and missionary. At the 1924 Olympics in Paris he won the gold medal in the 400 metres in a world record time of 47.6 seconds. In 1925 he went to China to work as a Scottish...

Liddon, Henry Parry
(1829-1890) English clergyman. His High Church sermons and writings had a strong influence on the Anglican religious thought of the period. He was prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral in 1864, and was appointed...

Lidgett, John Scott
(1854-1953) English cleric and social reformer. He served for 14 years as a Methodist minister. With Hugh Price Hughes he led the movement for the improvement of the industrial classes, which resulted in the...

Lidice
Czechoslovak mining village, replacing one destroyed by the Nazis on 10 June 1942 as a reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. The men were shot, the women sent to concentration camps,...

Lie, Jonas
(1833-1908) Norwegian novelist. His first novel, Den fremsynte/The Visionary 1870, is a melancholy romance full of `Nordland mystery`. In the 1880s he was influenced by the new realistic school of writing,...

Lie, Trygve Halvdan
(1896-1968) Norwegian Labour politician and diplomat. He became secretary of the Labour Party in 1926. During the German occupation of Norway in World War II he was foreign minister in the exiled government...

Lieb, Fred(erick George)
(1888-1980) US sportswriter. A leading sportswriter for over 50 years, he covered baseball for the New York Press from 1911 and also wrote articles for the Sporting News from 1935. Author of nine books on...

Lieber, Francis
(1800-1872) German-born US political reformer, editor, and political scientist. Two of his works, Manual of Political Ethics (1838-39) and On Civil Liberty and Self-Government (1853) provided the first...

Lieberman, Joe
(1942) US Democrat politician, senator for Connecticut since 1989. An experienced and moderate Democrat lawyer and politician, he ran unsuccessfully for vice-president in 2000, as running-mate to Al...

Liebermann, Max
(1847-1935) German Impressionist painter. He painted landscapes, portraits, and scenes of urban life, such as Parrot Walk in the Amsterdam Zoo 1902 (Kunsthalle, Bremen). A founder member of the Berlin Sezession...

Liebes, Dorothy Wright
(1899-1972) US textile designer. Opening her own studio in 1930 to design handwoven textiles for decorators and architects, she pioneered the use of machine techniques and exotic colours and materials. Liebes...

Liebknecht, Wilhelm
(1826-1900) German socialist. A friend of the communist theoretician Karl Marx, with whom he took part in the revolutions of 1848, he was impris ...

Liebling, A(bbott) J(oseph)
(1904-1963) US writer. A New Yorker staff writer from 1935 until his death, he was a World War II correspondent, did a regular feature criticizing the press, and wrote on such diverse topics as France, New York...

Liebman, Joshua Loth
(1907-1948) US rabbi and author. Following his ordination at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, he became a lecturer there in Greek philosophy. He was rabbi of Temple Israel in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1939...

Liechtenstein
Landlocked country in west-central Europe, bounded east by Austria and west by Switzerland. Government The 1921 constitution established a hereditary principality with a single-chamber...

liege
In the feudal system, the allegiance owed by a vassal to his or her lord (the liege lord). ...

Liège, Battle of
At the start of World War I, German siege operation to capture the Belgian city of Liège, a principal centre of Belgium's defence against German invasion. The city's forts were reduced by the...

Lieh Tzu
Collection of Chinese sayings, stories, and teachings ascribed to Lieh Tzu who, if he existed, lived in China around the 4th century BC. The book reflects early Taoist philosophical notions of the...

Liem Sioe Liong
(1916) Chinese-born Indonesian billionaire businessman. By the 1990s he controlled Indonesia's largest corporate group (Indocement, Indofood); was the major shareholder in the Bank of Central Asia, the...

lien
In law, the right to retain goods owned by another until the owner has satisfied a claim against him by the person in possession of the goods. For example, the goods may have been provided as...

Lienau, Detlef
(1818-1887) German-born US architect. He emigrated to New York in 1848, where he introduced the French Second Empire style and espoused neoclassicism throughout the mid-19th century. He helped found the...

Lievens, Jan
(1607-1674) Dutch painter and graphic artist. A fellow pupil of Life
US weekly magazine of photojournalism, which recorded US and world events pictorially from 1936-72, 1978-â€Æ`. It was founded by Henry Luce, owner of Time Inc., who bought the title of an older...

LIFFE
One of the exchanges in London where futures contracts are traded. It opened in September 1982. By 1998 it was the largest futures and options exchange in Europe. It provides a worldwide exchange...