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prehistory

(Encyclopedia)prehistory, period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some reco...

Mott, Lucretia Coffin

(Encyclopedia)Mott, Lucretia Coffin, 1793–1880, American feminist and reformer, b. Nantucket, Mass. She moved (1804) with her family to Boston and later (1809) to Philadelphia. A Quaker, she studied and taught at...

aristocracy

(Encyclopedia)aristocracy ărˌĭstŏkˈrəsē [key] [Gr.,=rule by the best], in political science, government by a social elite. In the West the political concept of aristocracy derives from Plato's formulation in...

Wolf, Christa

(Encyclopedia)Wolf, Christa krēsˈtä vôlf [key], 1929–2011, German novelist. After attending the universities of Jena and Leipzig, she worked as an editor of literary journals. A committed communist in her ear...

Bowman, Isaiah

(Encyclopedia)Bowman, Isaiah bōˈmən [key], 1878–1950, American geographer, b. Waterloo, Ont., B.S. Harvard, 1905, Ph.D. Yale, 1909. He taught geography at Yale (1905–15) and was director (1915–35) of the A...

Bly, Robert Elwood

(Encyclopedia)Bly, Robert Elwood, 1926–2021, American writer, translator, editor, and publisher, b. Lac qui Parle County, Mn., Harvard (B.A., 1950), Univ. of Iowa (...

Thurow, Lester Carl

(Encyclopedia)Thurow, Lester Carl tho͝orˈō, thərōˈ [key], 1938–2016, American economist, b. Livingston, Mont.; B.A. Williams College, 1960; M.A. Oxford, 1962; Ph.D. Harvard, 1964. Professor of management an...

Alfonso II, king of Portugal

(Encyclopedia)Alfonso II (Alfonso the Fat), 1185–1223, king of Portugal (1211–23), son and successor of Sancho I. His reign was spent in struggles with the church and his brothers and sisters, to whom his fathe...

Drummond, Henry, 1851–97, Scottish clergyman and author

(Encyclopedia)Drummond, Henry, 1851–97, Scottish clergyman and author, educated at the Univ. of Edinburgh. He was a minister of the Free Church and from 1877 a lecturer on science in Free Church College, Glasgow....

Hinsley, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Hinsley, Arthur, 1865–1943, English prelate, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Born in Yorkshire, he attended Catholic schools in England and Rome. He was ordained in 1893 and spent several dec...