Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ferrar, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Ferrar, Nicholas fĕrˈər [key], 1592–1637, English theologian. He was associated (1618–23) with the Virginia Company and, with his brother John, played a notable role in its affairs. He retired ...

Bernard, Claude

(Encyclopedia)Bernard, Claude klōd bĕrnärˈ [key], 1813–78, French physiologist. He turned from literature to medicine, working in Paris under Magendie and teaching at the Collège de France and at the Sorbonn...

Broch, Hermann

(Encyclopedia)Broch, Hermann hĕrˈmän brôkh [key], 1886–1951, Austrian novelist. Broch is one of the masters of European modernism. Influenced by Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Kraus, and the Vien...

Tupper, Sir Charles

(Encyclopedia)Tupper, Sir Charles, 1821–1915, Canadian statesman, b. Nova Scotia. A doctor, he sat (1855–67) in the provincial legislature, became (1864) premier of Nova Scotia, and was a leader in the movement...

Vidocq, Eugène François

(Encyclopedia)Vidocq, Eugène François ûzhĕnˈ fräNswäˈ vēdôkˈ [key], 1775–1857, French detective. After a career of crime for which he had been imprisoned, he joined the Paris Sûreté (security police)...

Washo

(Encyclopedia)Washo wäˈshō [key], Native North Americans occupying the region around Washo and Tahoe lakes in W Nevada and E California in the mid-19th cent. The Paiute were their inveterate enemies; before the ...

Schubert, Franz Peter

(Encyclopedia)Schubert, Franz Peter fränts pāˈtər sho͞oˈbərt [key], 1797–1828, Austrian composer, one of the most gifted musicians of the 19th cent. His symphonic works represent the best legacy of the cla...

Baum, L. Frank

(Encyclopedia)Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank Baum) bôm [key], 1856–1919, American journalist, playwright, and author of children's stories, b. Chittenango, N.Y. He and his family moved to South Dakota in 1888, wher...

chief

(Encyclopedia)chief or chieftain, political leader of a band, tribe, or confederation of tribes. At the simpler levels of social organization, the band or tribe usually lacks centralized authority and is ruled by t...

phenomenology

(Encyclopedia)phenomenology, modern school of philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl. Its influence extended throughout Europe and was particularly important to the early development of existentialism. Husserl attemp...

Browse by Subject