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

president
In government, the usual title of the head of state in a republic; the power of the office may range from the equivalent of a constitutional monarch to the actual head of the government. For...

Presidential Medal of Freedom
Highest peacetime civilian award in the USA, instituted by President Kennedy in 1963. It is conferred annually on Independence Day by the president on those making significant contributions to the...

presidium
Name (1952-66) of the Politburo, the executive committee of the Supreme Soviet in the USSR. ...

press
The news media, in particular newspapers, journals, and periodical literature generally. The term is used also to describe journalists and reporters. ...

Press Association
National news agency of the UK, founded in 1868. It provides comprehensive around-the-clock news and sports services for newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, and the electronic media. It also...

Press Complaints Commission
Non-statutory UK body formed in 1991 to replace the former Press Council and oversee the effective self-regulation of the press. It was set up on the basis of the recommendations of the...

Press Council
In the UK, an organization (1953-91) founded to preserve the freedom of the press, maintain standards, consider complaints, and report on monopoly developments. The Press Council was replaced by...

press gang
Method used to recruit soldiers and sailors into the British armed forces in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In effect it was a form of kidnapping carried out by the services or their agents,...

press stud
Type of fastening for fabric which comprises two sections: one side has a stud and the other a hole. Press studs are usually made of metal, but are sometimes plastic. The studded side fits snugly...

press, freedom of the
Absence of political censorship in the press or other media, a concept seen as basic to Western democracy. Access to...

Presser, Theodore
(1848-1925) US music publisher and philanthropist. After studying music at the New England Conservatory in Boston and then in Leipzig, in 1883 he founded a monthly musical magazine, Etude (which ran until...

pressure group
Association that puts pressure on governments, businesses, or parties to ensure laws and treatment favourable to its own interest. Pressure groups have played an increasing role in contemporary...

Prester John
Legendary Christian prince. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Prester John was believed to be the ruler of a vast and powerful empire in the interior of Asia. From the 14th to the 16th century, he...

Preston, Battle of
Battle of 17-19 August 1648 at Preston, Lancashire, in which the English defeated the Scots. The Scots invaded England under the Duke of Hamilton, but were cut off from Scotland by Cromwell and...

Preston, Lewis Thompson
(1926) US banker. He joined J P Morgan & Co. (later Morgan Guaranty Trust) after graduating from Harvard in 1951, and rose through the ranks to become president (1978-80) and chairman and chief executive...

Preston, Peter John
(1938) British newspaper editor and executive. In 1975 he became editor of the moderate left-wing daily Guardian and from 1988 he was also its company chair. ...

Preston, William Campbell
(1794-1860) US senator. Elected to the US Senate (Democrat, South Carolina; 1833-42), he supported states' rights and slavery. He resigned from the Senate and switched to the Whigs. He became president of the...

Prestonpans, Battle of
Battle in 1745 in which Prince Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite forces defeated the English during the Forty-five. It took place near the town of Prestonpans in Lothian region, eastern Scotland. ...

Prestopino, Gregorio
(1907-1984) US painter. He used social themes painted in an expressionist style, as in his Harlem series (1957), which became an award-winning Cannes Film Festival film, Harlem Wednesday (1958). He was born...

prestressed concrete
Developed form of reinforced concrete in which tensioned steel cables enclosed in ducts take the place of steel reinforcement. This allows the most efficient use of the tensile strength of steel...

pretender
Claimant to a throne. In British history, the term is widely used to describe the Old Pretender (James Edward Stuart) and his son, the Young Pretender (Charles Edward Stuart). ...

Preti, Mattia
(1613-1669) Italian painter. His style was formed on that of the baroque painters Guercino and Caravaggio. He travelled widely, painting in Bologna, Modena, Naples, and Rome, retiring finally to Malta. ...

Pretorius, Marthinus Wessels
(1819-1901) South African Boer commandant-general and political leader, the son of Andries Pretorius. In 1854 he led the Boer punitive force against the chieftain Makapaan, who had massacred Boer women and...

Preuss, Arthur
(1871-1934) US Catholic writer. An important voice in the German-American Catholic community, he launched the Catholic Review (later, Catholic Fortnightly Review) (1894) and from 1896 was literary editor of B...

Préval, René
(1943) Haitian liberal politician, president 1996-2001 and from 2006. A protégé of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, he was appointed prime minister in 1991. He succeeded Aristide as president in the...

Prévert, Jacques
(1900-1977) French poet and film screenwriter. His free verse, with a strong vein of humour and fantasy, was first collected in Paroles/Words 1946. Later volumes of verse are Histoires 1946, Spectacle 1951, and...

Previtali, Andrea
(c. 1470-1528) Painter from near Bergamo. He worked in Venice and (from 1511) Bergamo, and painted religious subjects and portraits. He was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, and his later work was...

Prévost, Jean
(1901-1944) French writer. His work analyses the life of the senses with clarity and vision. His publications include La Pensée de Paul Valéry 1926, Dix-huitième année/18th Year 1929, Epicuriens...

Priam
In Greek mythology, the last king of Troy; son of Laomedon and husband of Hecuba. He was...

Priapus
In Greek mythology, the god of fertility, son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, represented as grotesquely ugly, with an exaggerated phallus. He was later a Roman god of gardens, where his image was...

price
Value put on a commodity at the point of exchange. In a free market it is determined by the market forces of demand and supply. In an imperfect market, firms face a trade-off between charging a...

price elasticity of demand
Responsiveness of changes in quantity demanded to a change in price of the product. It is measured by the formula: percentage change in quantity demanded/percentage change in price. For example, if...

price index
Another term for retail price index. ...

Price, George Cadle
(1919) Belizean politician, prime minister 1954-84 and 1989-93. In 1950 he founded the country's first political party, the People's United Party (PUP), a left-of-centre grouping that grew out of a...

Price, Harry
(1881-1948) English psychic investigator. He founded and equipped 1925 the first laboratory in Britain for the scientific investigation of paranormal happenings. Price investigated the claims of the principal...

Price, Thomas Frederick
(1860-1919) US Catholic missionary. Ordained in 1886, he preached missions and edited a magazine of apologetics. In 1910 he met the Catholic prelate James Walsh, with whom he founded the Maryknoll Foreign...

prices and incomes policy
Governmental strategy to curb inflation; see incomes policy. ...

Pride and Prejudice
Novel by Jane Austen, published in 1813. Mr and Mrs Bennet, whose property is due to pass to a male cousin, William Collins, are anxious to secure good marriage settlements for their five daughters....

Pride, Thomas
(died 1658) English soldier and regicide. He entered the Parliamentary army in 1644 and distinguished himself at the battle of Naseby. In 1648, to prevent an...

Pride's purge
The removal of about 100 Royalists and Presbyterians of the English House of Commons from Parliament by a detachment of soldiers led by Col Thomas Pride (died 1658) in 1648. They were accused of...

Priesand, Sally Jane
(1946) US rabbi. She was ordained a Reform rabbi in 1972, the first woman to be so ordained in the USA. She was named rabbi of Temple Beth El in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and went to the Monmouth Reform...

priest
Minister of public worship, especially one who performs sacrificial rites. In the Christian church, priests are also responsible for administering the sacraments, blessing, and preaching. The...

Priest, James Percy
(1900-1956) US representative. A schoolteacher (1920-26) and journalist (1926-40) before going to Congress (Democrat, Tennessee; 1941-56), he served as majority whip (1945-47)...

priest's hole
Hiding place, in private homes, for Catholic priests in the 16th-17th centuries when there were penal laws against them in Britain. Many still exist, for example at Speke Hall, near Liverpool. ...

Priestley, J(ohn) B(oynton)
(1894-1984) English novelist and dramatist. His best-known plays are the mysterious and puzzling An Inspector Calls (1945) and The Linden Tree (1948), a study of post-war social issues. Priestley had a gift...

Prieux rocket
Incendiary rocket used by fighter aircraft in World War I to attack observation balloons and airships. Stabilized by a long stick, in the same way as common firework rockets, they were fired...

Primakov, Yevgeny Maksimovich
(1928) Russian politician, prime minister 1998-99. He was appointed foreign minister in 1995 in order to give President Boris Yeltsin some credibility with those who supported the communists and...

primary
In presidential election campaigns in the USA, a statewide ballot in which voters indicate their candidate preferences for the two main parties. Held...

primate
In the Christian church, the official title of an archbishop. The archbishop of Canterbury is the Primate of All England, and the archbishop of York the Primate of England. ...

Primaticcio, Francesco
(c. 1504-1570) Italian Mannerist painter, sculptor, architect, and decorator. Sent to France in 1532 to assist with the decoration of the palace at Fontainebleau, he worked alongside Rosso Fiorentino, and...

Primavera
Tempera painting on panel by Sandro Botticelli (1478; Uffizi Gallery, Florence). It shows Venus in a grove attended by two groups of pagan deities, one symbolizing earthly...

prime minister
Head of a parliamentary government, usually the leader of the largest party. In countries with an executive president, the prime minister is of lesser standing, whereas in those with dual...

prime rate
The interest rate charged by commercial banks to their best customers. It is the lowest interest or base rate on which other rates are calculated according to the risk involved. Only borrowers who...

Primitive Methodism
Protestant Christian movement, an offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism, that emerged in England in 1811 when evangelical enthusiasts organized camp meetings at places such as Mow Cop in 1807. Inspired by...

Primitivism
Influence on modern art (Ernst Kirchner, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, and others) of primitive art:prehistoric art; the indigenous arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; and...

Primrose League
In the UK, quasi-masonic society founded in 1883 to promote the Tory democracy of the Fourth Party among working class voters. It particularly opposed home rule for Ireland, and promoted the...

prince
Royal or noble title. In ancient Rome and medieval Italy it was used as the title of certain officials, for example, princeps senatus (Latin `leader of the Senate`). Hence it came to be used for...

Prince Consort
Title awarded to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, in 1857, in recognition of his great contribution to her reign. The title became closely associated with Albert personally, and has not...

Prince, Hal
(1928) US director of musicals. He directed, among others, Cabaret (1968) and Follies (1971) on Broadway in New York, and Evita (1978) and Sweeney Todd (1980) in London's West End. He directed several of...

Prince, The
Political treatise by the Italian historian and political thinker Machiavelli, published in 1532. The Prince was long controversial because it described the reality of political power rather than an...

Princes in the Tower
Popular name for King Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York (1472-1483). They are said to have been murdered in the Tower of London by order of their uncle, the Duke of...

Princess Royal
Title borne only by the eldest daughter of the British sovereign, granted by royal declaration. It was first borne by Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I, probably in imitation of the French court,...

principate
In ancient Rome, an unofficial title for the rule of Augustus and his successors, designating the emperor as the leading citizen. ...

Principi, Anthony J
(1944) US public servant, secretary of veterans affairs from 2001. From a military background and himself a Vietnam veteran, he is a long-time advocate of expanding military and veterans' benefits,...

Pringle, Henry Fowles
(1897-1958) US biographer and journalist. A `muckraking` reporter of the 1920s, he wrote a somewhat deflating Pulitzer Prize biography of Theodore Roosevelt (1931) and an ambitious two-volume biography of...

Pringle, Joel (Roberts Poinsett)
(1873-1932) US naval officer who was the senior US officer at Queenstown, Ireland 1917-19. He held several other naval appointments and died while serving as commander of the battleships, US Fleet. He was...

Pringle, Thomas
(1789-1834) Scottish poet. He helped found the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine 1817 (later Blackwood's Magazine) and edited it for some months with J Cleghorn. Emigrating to South Africa 1820, he formed the...

printmaking
Creating a picture or design by printing from a plate (woodblock, stone, or metal sheet) that holds ink or colour. The oldest form of print is the woodcut, common in medieval Europe, followed by...

Printz, Johan Bjornsson
(1592-1663) Swedish-born American colonial governor. He was governor of New Sweden (in the Delaware River Valley) from 1642 to 1653. His forceful manner caused a group of settlers to try to send a petition to...

Prior, Matthew
(1664-1721) British poet and diplomat. He was associated under the Whigs with the negotiation of the treaty of Ryswick (1697) ending the war with France and under the Tories with that of Utrecht (1714)...

prior, prioress
In a Christian religious community, the deputy of an abbot or abbess, responsible for discipline. In certain Roman Catholic orders, the prior or prioress is the principal of a monastery or convent. ...

Priscillian
Spanish theologian and heresiarch. Regarding Christian life as a continual intercourse with God, he agreed that a man must hold a Catholic faith and perform acts of charity; but he also maintained...

Prishvin, Mikhail Mikhailovich
(1873-1954) Russian writer. His works, such as In the Land of the Unfrightened Birds 1906, Jen Shing/The Root of Life 1932, and the autobiographical novel The Chain of Kashchei 1930, combine descriptions of...

prisoner of conscience
Anyone confined for their opinions alone, usually a political dissenter or conscientious objector. In 1992, there were 4,500 PoCs in 62 countries according to the human rights organization prisoner of war
Person captured in war, who has fallen into the hands of, or surrendered to, an opponent. Such captives may be held in prisoner-of-war camps. The treatment of POWs is governed...

Pritchard, James Bennett
(1909-1997) US archaeologist. His lifelong study of the Middle East included expeditions to Jericho (1951), el-Jib (1956-62), and Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Jordan (1964-67), and yielded such publications as...

Pritchett, V(ictor) S(awdon)
(1900-1997) English short-story writer, novelist, and critic. His style was often witty and satirical. Many of his short stories were set in London and southeast England, among them The Spanish Virgin (1930),...

Pritchett, William Kendrick
(1909) US classicist. He was an expert on Greek epigraphy (the study of inscriptions), warfare, and topography, and his publications include Studies in Greek Topography I-IV 1965, The Greek State at War...

Prithviraja Chauhan III
Hindu ruler of Delhi and king of the Chauhan Rajputs, who controlled the Delhi-Ajmer region of north central India. He commanded a coalition of Rajput forces which sought to halt Muhammad Ghuri's...

Pritt, Denis Nowell
(1887-1972) British lawyer, communist, and politician. Initially a Conservative, Pritt joined the Liberals in 1914 and was elected Labour member of Parliament for Hammersmith North in 1935. Expelled from the...

privacy
The right of the individual to be free from secret surveillance (by scientific devices or other means) and from the disclosure to unauthorized persons of personal...

private costs and benefits
Costs and benefits to the individual, business, or government engaged in an economic activity. These may be different from the social costs and benefits of the activity because, for example, a...

private enterprise
Sector of the economy or business unit where economic activities are in private hands, set up through private capital and carried out for private profit, as opposed to national, municipal, or...

Private Eye
British satirical magazine, published fortnightly. Begun in the 1960s, it often publishes news items considered too controversial or unsubstantiated by mainstream press, and many of its writers use...

private finance initiative
An idea suggested by the UK Labour Party when in opposition before 1997, and particularly by the deputy leader, John Prescott, who argued that the country's infrastructure (services) could be...

private limited company
Registered company which has limited liability (the shareholders cannot lose more than their original shareholdings), and a minimum of two shareholders and a maximum of fifty. It cannot offer its...

private sector
The part of the economy that is owned and controlled by private individuals and business organizations such as private and public limited companies. In a privateer
Privately owned and armed ship commissioned by a state to attack enemy vessels. The crews of such ships were, in effect, legalized pirates; they were not paid but received a share of the spoils....

privatization
Policy or process of selling or transferring state-owned or public assets and services (notably nationalized industries) to private investors. Privatization of services involves the government...

privilege
In law, a special right or immunity in connection with legal proceedings. Public-interest privilege may be claimed by the government seeking to preserve the confidentiality of state documents....

Privy Council
Council composed originally of the chief royal officials of the Norman kings in Britain; under the Tudors and early Stuarts it became the chief governing body. It was replaced from 1688 by the...

privy purse
Personal expenditure of the British sovereign, which derives from his/her own resources (as distinct from the civil list, which now finances only expenses incurred in pursuance of official functions...

Privy Seal, Lord
In the UK, an honorary title for a senior cabinet minister with special nondepartmental duties; see Lord Privy Seal. ...

Prix Goncourt
French literary prize for fiction, given by the Académie Goncourt (founded by Edmond de Goncourt in 1903). ...

probate
Formal proof of a will. In the UK, if a will's validity is unquestioned, it is proven in `common form`; the executor, in the absence of other interested parties, obtains at a probate registry a...

probation
In law, the placing of offenders under supervision of probation officers in the community, as an alternative to prison. There are strict limits placed on travel, associations,...

problem plays, Shakespeare's
The three Shakespeare plays that are thought to present a view of social and personal relationships that is morally ambivalent, even cynical. They are:All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure,...

Probus, Marcus Aurelius
(died AD 282) Roman emperor from AD 276. He served with distinction under Valerian and later emperors in Africa, Asia, and Germany. The emperor Tacitus made him governor of Rome's eastern provinces, and on his...

Procaccini, Ercole
(1520-1591) Milanese painter. He was the head of a family of considerable influence in the development of painting in Milan, where he founded a teaching academy. His three sons, Camillo Procaccini...

process art
Form of art in which the process of making is considered more important than the artwork produced. Unlike traditional artworks, process art often uses organic, impermanent materials such as ice,...