Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Pietism

(Encyclopedia)Pietism pīˈətĭzəm [key], a movement in the Lutheran Church (see Lutheranism), most influential between the latter part of the 17th cent. and the middle of the 18th. It was an effort to stir the c...

existentialism

(Encyclopedia)existentialism ĕgzĭstĕnˈshəlĭzəm, ĕksĭ– [key], any of several philosophic systems, all centered on the individual and his relationship to the universe or to God. Important existentialists o...

military government

(Encyclopedia)military government, rule of enemy territory under military occupation. It is distinguished from martial law, which is the temporary rule by domestic armed forces over disturbed areas. The practices o...

Brecht, Bertolt

(Encyclopedia)Brecht, Bertolt bĕrˈtôlt brĕkht [key], 1898–1956, German dramatist and poet, b. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht. His brilliant wit, his outspoken Marxism, and his revolutionary experiments in th...

German literature

(Encyclopedia)German literature, works in the German language by German, Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, and Swiss authors, as well as by writers of German in other countries. The postwar decades saw a gradual litera...

Bohr, Niels Henrik David

(Encyclopedia)Bohr, Niels Henrik David bōr [key], 1885–1962, Danish physicist, one of the foremost scientists of modern physics. He studied at the Univ. of Copenhagen (Ph.D. 1911) and carried on research on the...

logical positivism

(Encyclopedia)logical positivism, also known as logical or scientific empiricism, modern school of philosophy that attempted to introduce the methodology and precision of mathematics and the natural sciences into t...

Volgograd

(Encyclopedia)Volgograd vôlgəgrätˈ [key], formerly Stalingrad, city (1989 pop. 999,000), capital of Volgograd region, SE European Russia, a port on the Volga River and the eastern terminus of the Volga-Don Cana...

heredity

(Encyclopedia)heredity, transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents. That like begets like has...

Normandy campaign

(Encyclopedia)Normandy campaign, June to Aug., 1944, in World War II. The Allied invasion of the European continent through Normandy began about 12:15 a.m. on June 6, 1944 (D-day). The plan, known as Operation Over...

Browse by Subject