Norman Angell Biography

Norman Angell was an English politician, peace activist, journalist, lecturer and author who worked for some of the best known publications of his time. Although Angell was born in England, he studied in his country only for a short while and instead went to Paris to complete his school level education. Eventually, he studied at the University of Geneva and subsequently went off to the United States. In the US, Angell did a number of jobs which did not completely do justice to his journalistic credentials and it took a while before he was able to get a job with noted newspapers. Eventually he went back to Europe and worked for newspapers in Paris and also as the editor of the esteemed magazine ‘Foreign Affairs’ in the course of a glittering journalism career. Angell wrote his seminal work ‘The Great Illusion’ in 1909 and in the book, he argued about the misplaced notion that wars can lead to economic development and the book became one of the most read of the time. He joined the Labour Party as well and became an MP, however his most important work towards the later part of his career was his campaign against war.