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Melville, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Herman, 1819–91, American author, b. New York City, considered one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature. Like Moby-Dick, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (18...

Custer, George Armstrong

(Encyclopedia)Custer, George Armstrong, 1839–76, American army officer, b. New Rumley, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1861. In the reorganization of the U.S. army after the war Custer was assigned to the 7th Cavalry w...

Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa

(Encyclopedia)Mbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa täˈbō mvo͝oyĕlˈə mbĕkˈē [key], 1942–, South African political leader. Mbeki was born into a politically active family; his father, Govan Mbeki, an official with the A...

Schiller, Friedrich von

(Encyclopedia)Schiller, Friedrich von, 1759–1805, German dramatist, poet, and historian, one of the greatest of German literary figures, b. Marbach, Württemberg. The poets of German romanticism were strongly inf...

Natives, Middle American

(Encyclopedia)Natives, Middle American or Mesoamerican, aboriginal peoples living in the area between present-day United States and South America. Although most of Mexico is geographically considered part of North ...

poet laureate

(Encyclopedia)poet laureate lôˈrēĭt [key], title conferred in Britain by the monarch on a poet whose duty it is to write commemorative odes and verse. It is an outgrowth of the medieval English custom of having...

sociology

(Encyclopedia)sociology, scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans in their collective aspect, sociology is concerned with all group activities—economic, social, political, and religious. ...

progressive education

(Encyclopedia)progressive education, movement in American education. Confined to a period between the late 19th and mid-20th cent., the term “progressive education” is generally used to refer only to those educ...

Crete

(Encyclopedia)Crete krēt [key], Gr. Kríti, island, c.3,235 sq mi (8,380 sq km), SE Greece, in the E Medit...

Jacobites

(Encyclopedia)Jacobites jăkˈəbītsˌ [key], adherents of the exiled branch of the house of Stuart who sought to restore James II and his descendants to the English and Scottish thrones after the Glorious Revolut...