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

Pattern and Decoration
US arts movement that emerged in the 1970s. Rejecting the austerities of abstract and conceptual art, Pattern and Decoration artists created works that were richly decorated, often with motifs from...

Patterson, Harry
(1929) English novelist. A prolific and internationally popular author, he has written many thrillers under his own name, including Dillinger (1983), as well as under the pseudonym Jack Higgins, including...

Patterson, Joseph Medill
(1879-1946) US newspaper publisher. Sharing ownership and control of the Chicago Tribune with his cousin, Robert McCormick, he cofounded the Illustrated Daily News (later the New York Daily News) with him in...

Patterson, P(ercival) J(ames)
(1935) Jamaican centre-left politician and lawyer; prime minister 1992-2006. Having lost his seat in the crushing defeat of the People's National Party (PNP) by t ...

Patterson, Robert
(1792-1881) Irish-born soldier. As a major general he commanded Union forces around Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1861 and was criticized for failing to attack the Confederates in his front, leaving them free...

Pattie, James Ohio
(1804-c. 1850) US trapper and author. He published a semifictional Personal Narrative (1831) regarding his travels to Mexico and California. He joined the gold rush in 1849 and disappeared while camping in the...

Pattison, Mark
(1813-1884) English scholar. In 1875 he published a life of the French scholar and humanist Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614). Critics of George Eliot'sMiddlemarch have speculated on the parallels between her...

Patton, George Smith
(1885-1945) US general in World War II, known as `Old Blood and Guts`. During World War I, he formed the first US tank force and led it in action in 1918. He was appointed to command the 2nd Armored...

Paugusset
Member of an American Indian people who live in Connecticut. They are descended from the Pequannock, one of the five Algonquian-speaking tribes that comprised the Paugussett Confederation, a...

Paul
(1901-1964) King of the Hellenes (Greece) from 1947, when he succeeded his brother George II. He was the son of Constantine I. In 1938 he married Princess Frederika (1917), daughter of...

Paul I
(1754-1801) Tsar of Russia from 1796, in succession to his mother Catherine II. Mentally unstable, he pursued an erratic foreign policy and was assassinated. ...

Paul the Deacon
(c. 720-c. 800) Lombard monk. He became a monk at Monte Cassino. He wrote the chief source for Lombard history of that period, the five-volume Historia gentis Langobardorum/History of the Lombard People, dealing...

Paul V
(died 1621) Pope 1605-21. A trained canonist, he insisted too much upon theory at the expense of hard political realities, and so quarrelled with the Italian states. As a patron of art and letters he began...

Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Montini
(1897-1978) Pope from 1963. His encyclical Humanae Vitae/Of Human Life (1968) reaffirmed the church's traditional teaching on birth control, thus following the minority report of the commission originally...

Paul-Boncour, Joseph
(1873-1972) French politician. In 1906 he was elected to the Chamber as an Independent Socialist. In 1911 he joined the Socialist party and became Labour minister in the Monis-Bertaux Cabinet. Paul-Boncour...

Paul, Elliot Harold
(1891-1958) US author. His works include the novel Indelible 1922, about two young musicians, and the travel book The Narrow Street/The Last Time I Saw Paris 1940. ...

Paul, St
(c.AD 3-c.AD 68) Christian missionary and martyr; in the New Testament, one of the apostles and author of 13 Epistles. Originally known as Saul, he was opposed to Christianity, and took part in the stoning of St...

Paulding, James Kirke
(1778-1860) US author. He published the Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 1812 and a more serious work, The United States and England 1815, which led to his appointment as a member of the...

Paulhan, Jean
(1884-1968) French essayist and critic. He was editor of the Nouvelle Revue française 1925-40. His writings include La Guérison sévère 1925, Le Guerrier appliqué 1930, Les Fleurs de Tarbes 1941, Clef de...

Paulinus
(died 644) Roman missionary to Britain who joined St Augustine in Kent in 601. He was made a bishop in 625 and went to Northumbria where he succeeded in converting King Edwin and his court in 627. He became...

Paulinus, Gaius Suetonius
(lived 1st century AD) Roman governor of Britain AD 59-62. He subdued the rebellious Iceni (native Britons) and defeated Boudicca, their queen, AD 61. He was consul in AD 66, and in AD 69 was one of the emperor Otho's...

Paulson, Hank
(1946) US banker and Republican politician, treasury secretary from 2006. Chairman and chief executive officer of the investment bank Goldman Sachs from 1998, in June 2006 he succeeded John Snow as US...

Paulus, Friedrich von
(1890-1957) German field marshal in World War II, responsible for much of the detailed planning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union 1941, and commander of the forces that besieged...

Paulus, Julius
(lived 3rd century AD) Roman jurist. He was legal assessor to Papinian, about whose works he wrote a commentary. Approximately one-sixth of Justinian's Digest consists of extracts from Paulus. ...

Pausanias
(lived 2nd century AD) Greek geographer, author of a valuably accurate description of Greece compiled from his own travels, Description of Greece, also translated as Itinerary of Greece. ...

Pausanias
Spartan general who commanded the Greeks at Plataea in 479 BC, routing the Persians. As admiral of the Greek fleet in 478 BC he captured Byzantium from the Persians and subjugated most of Cyprus. He...

Paustovski, Konstantin Georgievich
(1892-1968) Russian writer of short stories, plays, and memoirs. His long autobiographical work Povest' o zhizni/Story of a Life was published 1945-63. Paustovski played a leading role in the cultural thaw...

Pavese, Cesare
(1908-1950) Italian poet, translator, and novelist. Imprisoned for antifascist journalism, he published his poems Lavorare stanca/Hard Labour 1936 on his release. His sensitive translations and critical...

Pavia, Battle of
Battle fought in 1525 between France and the Holy Roman Empire. The Habsburg emperor Charles V defeated and captured Francis I of France; the battle marked the beginning of Habsburg dominance in...

Pavlov, Valentin
(1937) Soviet communist politician, prime minister January-August 1991. He served in the finance ministry, the state planning committee (Gosplan), and the state pricing committee before becoming minister...

Pawlikowski, Pawel
(1957) Polish-born film director and screenwriter, based in the UK from 1977. His films, both documentaries and fiction, explore and often satirize modern social and cultural issues. He wrote and...

Pawnee
Member of an American Indian people who inhabited the lower Mississippi River Valley until the 17th-18th centuries when they moved to Nebraska on the Platte River after acquiring horses. Their...

Pax
In Roman mythology, the goddess of peace, equivalent to the Greek Irene. The emporer Vespasian erected a temple in her honour at Rome, where a festival held on 30 April celebrated Pax with Salus,...

Paxton, Joseph
(1801-1865) English architect. He was also garden superintendent to the Duke of Devonshire from 1826. He designed the Great Exhibition building 1851 (the Crystal Palace), which was revolutionary in its...

pay
Financial reward given by employers to employees for their work. Take-home pay or net pay is pay after income tax, national insurance contributions, and any other deductions have been taken away....

Pay-As-You-Earn
System of tax collection in the UK in which income tax is deducted on a regular basis by the employer from wages before they are paid. PAYE tax deductions are calculated so that when added up they...

Paycocke's
Early 16th-century merchant's house in Essex, England, 13 km/8 mi west of Colchester. It is half-timbered, and remarkable for the richness of the panelling and wood-carving inside. Lord...

PAYE
Abbreviation for Pay-As-You-Earn. ...

paymaster-general
Head of the paymaster-general's office, the British government department (established in 1835) that acts as paying agent for most other departments. The current paymaster general from 1998 is...

Payn, James
(1830-1898) English novelist. His first novel was The Foster Brothers 1859; it was followed by many others, including Lost Sir Massingberd 1864, Walter's Word 1875, By Proxy 1878, The Canon's Ward 1884, and The...

Payne, John Howard
(1791-1852) US actor, playwright, and composer. He wrote the words to the song `Home, Sweet Home` (to the music of Henry Rowley Bishop) for one of his operett ...

Payne, Sereno Elisha
(1843-1914) US representative. A graduate of the University of Rochester, he had a law practice in Auburn, New York (1866-1914) before going to Congress (Republican, New York; 1883-85, 1887-1914)....

Paz Zamora, Jaime
(1939) Bolivian president 1989-94. His administration was uneventful and very much a continuation of the policies established by his predecessor Paz Estenssoro. Paz Zamora was leader of the centre-left...

Paz, (Estenssoro) Victor
(1907-2001) Bolivian president 1952-56, 1960-64, and 1985-89. He founded and led the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), which seized power in 1952. His regime extended the vote to Indians,...

Paz, Octavio
(1914-1998) Mexican poet, essayist, and political thinker. His works reflect many influences, including Marxism, surrealism, and Aztec mythology. El laberinto de la soledad/The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950), the...

PC
Abbreviation for Pacific Community. ...

Pea Ridge
Town in Benton County, northwestern Arkansas, USA, on the Ozark Plateau, 8 km/5 mi south of the Missouri border and 13 km/8 mi northwest of Rogers; population (1990) 1,700. It is the site of the...

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer
(1804-1894) US publisher and educator. In 1839 she opened a Boston bookstore where the transcendentalists' Dial magazine was published. She started the first US k ...

Peabody, Lucy Whitehead
(1861-1949) US mission leader. As an officer of the Woman's American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society (1890-1906), and chair of the Central Committee on the United Study of Missions (1902-29), she...

Peabody, Robert Swain
(1845-1917) US architect. His partnership (1870-1917) with John Goddard Stearns, Jr (1843-1917) was the foremost Boston firm for 30 years, completing more than 1,000 stylistically diverse commissions and...

peace
A concept with two distinct meanings. On the one hand it can be defined negatively as the absence of war and hostility; on the other hand in a religious context it suggests the idea of harmony and...

Peace Corps
US organization of trained men and women, established by President Kennedy in 1961. The Peace Corps provides skilled volunteer workers for developing countries, especially in the fields of teaching,...

peace movement
Collective opposition to war. The Western peace movements of the late 20th century can trace their origins to the pacifists of the 19th century and conscientious objectors during World War I. The...

peace pipe
Tobacco pipe ritually used by American Indian peoples. It was handed round assemblies of warriors at the conclusion of peace negotiations or other important ceremonies. Nowadays, it is offered to...

Peace Pledge Union
Pacifist movement founded in 1936 by Canon Dick Sheppard (1880-1937). It grew rapidly in the late 1930s, attracting support from Bertrand Russell and Vera Brittain, and by 1940 had a membership of...

Peacock, Thomas Love
(1785-1866) English satirical novelist and poet. His unique whimsical novels are full of paradox, prejudice, curious learning, and witty dialogue, interspersed with occasional poems, and he satirizes...

Peake, Harold John Edward
(1867-1946) English archaeologist and anthropologist. He pioneered the investigation of the distribution of types, realizing the close interdependence of physical anthropology and material archaeology. Peake...

Peake, Mervyn Laurence
(1911-1968) English writer and illustrator. His novels include the grotesque fantasy trilogy Titus Groan (1946), Gormenghast (1950), and Titus Alone (1959), together creating an allegory of the decline of...

Peale, Norman Vincent
(1898-1993) US Methodist leader. Through his radio programme and book The Art of Living 1948, he became one of the best-known religious figures in the USA. His The Power of Positive Thinking 1952 became a...

Pearce, (Ann) Philippa
(1920-2006) English writer. Her critically acclaimed books for children include the classic time travel novel Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), which won the Carnegie Medal. Her first novel was the mystery...

Pearl Harbor
US Pacific naval base on Oahu island, Hawaii, USA, the scene of a Japanese aerial attack on 7 December 1941, which brought the USA into World War II. The attack took place while Japanese envoys were...

Pearse, Patrick Henry
(1879-1916) Irish writer, educationalist and revolutionary. He was prominent in the Gaelic revival, and a leader of the Easter Rising in 1916. Proclaimed president of the provisional government, he was...

Pearson, Cyril Arthur
(1866-1921) British journalist and newspaper proprietor. In 1900 he founded the Daily Express, and in 1905 became owner of the Standard and chief owner of the St James's Gazette. His sight began to fail in...

Pearson, Drew (Andrew Russell)
(1897-1969) US newspaper correspondent, who from 1932 wrote the syndicated column `Washington Merry-Go-Round`. After his death the column was taken over by the newspaper columnist and writer Jack...

Pearson, Hesketh
(1887-1964) English writer. Doctor Darwin 1930 was the first of his biographies notable for their zest, humour, and power in delineating character and describing incident. These include works on Gilbert and...

Pearson, John Loughborough
(1817-1897) English architect of the late Gothic revival period, trained under Ignatius Bonomi, Anthony Salvin, and Philip Hardwick (1792-1870). In 1843 he set up independently, becoming famous as a restorer...

Pearson, Lester Bowles
(1897-1972) Canadian politician, leader of the Liberal Party from 1958, prime minister 1963-68. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1957 for playing a key role in settling the
Peart, (Thomas) Frederick
(1914-1988) British Labour politician. He was minister of Agriculture 1964-68 and then Lord President of the Privy Council and leader of the House of Commons 1968-70. In March 1974 he again became minister...

Peary, Robert Edwin
(1856-1920) US polar explorer who, after several unsuccessful attempts, became the first person to reach the North Pole on 6 April 1909. In 1988 an astronomer claimed Peary's measurements were incorrect. He...

peasant
Country-dweller engaged in small-scale farming. A peasant normally owns or rents a small amount of land, working with an aim to be self-sufficient and to sell surplus supplies locally. In the...

Peasants' Revolt
The rising of the English peasantry in June 1381, the result of economic, social, and political discontent. It was sparked off by the attempt to levy a new poll tax in the village of Fobbing, Essex,...

Pechstein, Max
(1881-1955) German painter and graphic artist. He became a member of the expressionist die Brücke group 1906, his work influenced by Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, and then by the art of nonindustrial...

Peckham, Rufus Wheeler
(1838-1909) US Supreme Court justice. He served on New York's supreme court (1883-86) and court of appeals (1886-95). President Grover Cleveland named him to the US Supreme Court (1896-1909) where he...

pediment
In architecture, the triangular structure crowning the portico of a classical building. The pediment was a distinctive feature of Greek temples. ...

Pedro
(1429-1466) Portuguese noble, constable of Portugal from 1443. His father Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, acting as regent for Afonso V, furthered his own political interests by appointing...

Pedro I
(1798-1834) Emperor of Brazil 1822-31. The son of John VI of Portugal, he escaped to Brazil on Napoleon's invasion, and was appointed regent in 1821. He proclaimed Brazil independent in 1822 and was crowned...

Pedro II
(1825-1891) Emperor of Brazil 1831-89. He proved an enlightened ruler, but his antislavery measures alienated the landowners, who compelled him to abdicate. ...

peel towers
Scottish fortified building comprising a main tower surrounded by an enclosure for livestock (`peel`), designed as protection against cross-border cattle raids. ...

Peel, John
(1947-2004) English disc jockey and broadcaster who presented pop shows for BBC radio since the advent of its pop channel, Radio 1, in 1967. An enthusiast for new music, he never settled into complacency and...

Peel, John
(1776-1854) English yeoman (independent farmer). He is the hero of the song `D'ye ken John Peel`, said to have been written about 1829 by his friend John Woodcock Graves to a folk tune, `Bonnie Annie`....

Peel, Robert
(1788-1850) British Conservative politician. As home secretary 1822-27 and 1828-30, he founded the modern police force and in 1829 introduced Roman Catholic emancipation. He was prime minister 1834-35 and...

Peele, George
(c. 1558-c. 1596) English dramatist and poet. His surviving plays are a pastoral, The Arraignment of Paris (1584), Edward I (1593), The Battle of Alcazar (1594), a fantastic comedy, The Old Wives' Tale (1595), and...

Peenemünde
Fishing village in Germany, used from 1937 by the Germans to develop the V2 rockets used in World War II. It was bombed by the RAF in August 1943, causing considerable damage, and killing 750 staff...

peerage
The high nobility; in the UK, holders, in descending order, of the titles of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. In the late 19th century the peerage was augmented by the Lords of Appeal in...

Pegasus
In Greek mythology, the winged horse that sprang from the blood of the Gorgon Medusa when she was decapitated by the hero Perseus. He carried Bellerophon in his fight with the chimera, and was later...

Pegler, (Francis) Westbrook
(1894-1969) US journalist. As a columnist for the Hearst-owned King Features Syndicate (1944-62), he won a 1941 Pulitzer Prize for exposing labour corruption but became more noted for vitriolic attacks on...

Péguy, Charles Pierre
(1873-1914) French Catholic socialist writer. He established a socialist publishing house in Paris. From 1900 he published on political topics Les Cahiers de la quinzaine/Fortnightly Notebooks. He dedicated...

Pei, I(eoh) M(ing)
(1917) Chinese-born US modernist architect. He is noted for his innovative high-tech structures, particularly the use of glass walls. His projects include the 70-storey Bank of China, Hong Kong...

Peipus, Lake
Lake in eastern Estonia and western Russia; the boundary between the Baltic state and the Pskov oblast of the Russian Federation runs north-south across the centre...

Peire d'Auvergne
(lived c. 1140-80) French troubadour, from the Clermont region. He entered the Church but broke his vows and wandered from court to court, dying penitent. Some 25 of his poems remain. He was one of the first...

Peking man
Chinese representative of an early species of human, found as fossils, 500,000-750,000 years old, in the cave of Choukoutien in 1927 near Beijing (Peking). Peking man used chipped stone tools,...

Pelagianism
The teachings of the British Christian theologian Pelagius (360-420). He taught the primacy of individual free will committed to perfectionist ideas. The Roman Catholic Church officially banned...

Pelagius
(c. 360-c. 420) British theologian. He taught that each person possesses free will (and hence the possibility of salvation), denying Augustine's doctrines of predestination and original sin. Cleared of heresy by a...

Pelasgi
In classical writings, the pre-Hellenic peoples of Greece. The adjective `pelasgic` was applied to anything surviving from prehistoric times; the earliest fortification on the Acropolis in...

Peletier, Jacques
(1517-1582) French poet. He was a member of the Pléiade group of poets. His literary works include a translation of Horace'sArs poetica (1545), an Art poétique of his own (1555), and poems, Euvres poétiques...

Peleus
In Greek mythology, a king of the Myrmidons and the father of Achilles by the nymph Thetis. Peleus was the son of Aeacus (a son of Zeus and later a judge of the underworld). Having, with his brother...

Pelham, Henry
(1696-1754) English Whig politician. He held a succession of offices in Robert Walpole's cabinet 1721-42, and was prime minister 1743-54. His influence in the House of Commons was based on systematic...

Pelikan, Jaroslav Jan, Jr
(1923-2006) US historian of religion. He wrote over 30 books, including the monumental 5-volume Christian Tradition (1971, 1974, 1978, 1984, 1989). His Riddle of Roman Catholicism (1959) sold many copies...

Pelion
Mountain in Thessaly, Greece, near Mount Ossa; height 1,548 m/5,079 ft. In Greek mythology it was the home of the centaurs, creatures half-human and half-horse. ...

Pella
Capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia. It was the birthplace of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. Excavations began in 1957 and many elaborate mosaics have been revealed at the...