- published: 08 Sep 2014
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Andrew Roth (23 April 1919, New York City – 12 August 2010) was a biographer and journalist known for his compilation of Parliamentary Profiles, a directory of British Members of Parliament, which is available online in The Guardian. A well-known figure amongst the politicians and journalists in Westminster for fifty years, he was also known for his appearances on British television.
He scoured Hansard, gossip columns, vote papers, and committee reports to compile his profiles of the personnel of the U.K. Parliament and assessed their character traits, history, opinions, and psychological drives. The profiles also included cartoon caricatures by Terry Roth.
Roth's detailed obituaries were composed for international and national figures of note, using the skills and information he collected in his biographical research. A catalogue of his published obituaries in the archives of The Guardian provides an insightful and historical perspective to contemporary news as the deaths of the noteworthy are documented and he reviews their lives.
"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.
The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.
The earliest recorded use[citation needed] of the term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to a letter written by a young Alexander Hamilton in September 1772, when he was 15. In a letter to his father James Hamilton, published in the Royal Dutch-American Gazette, he described the response of the Dutch governor of St. Croix to a hurricane that raked that island on August 31, 1772. "Our General has issued several very salutary and humane regulations and both in his publick and private measures, has shewn himself the Man." [dubious – discuss] In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.