A Brief History of
The Nobel Peace Prize
 

According to the testament, the prize for peace is to be awarded to the person or organization who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding of peace congresses." The prize is to be decided upon by a committee of five persons elected by the Storting, the Norwegian national parliament

Since its inception in 1901, the Peace Prize has been awarded to a wide range of individuals and organizations selected by the committee as “best exemplifying Alfred Nobel’s directive,” including three U.S. presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter.  It is the most prestigious prize of its kind in the world.

Nobel was an industrialist with a conscience. He is credited with creating a controllable combustible that made blasting rock and the construction of canals and tunnels a relatively safe process. Nobel also contributed to the inventions of synthetic rubber, artificial silk, and synthetic leather and held more than 350 patents at the time of his death. His interests were not limited to science only; he loved literature and poetry and wrote several novels and poems. At his death, he left a library of more than 1,500 books.