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Gothic revival

(Encyclopedia)Gothic revival, term designating a return to the building styles of the Middle Ages. Although the Gothic revival was practiced throughout Europe, it attained its greatest importance in the United Stat...

Somme, Battles of the

(Encyclopedia)Somme, Battles of the, two engagements fought during World War I near the Somme River, N France. The first battle (July–Nov., 1916) was an Allied offensive. The British, commanded by Field Marshal S...

Sankara, Thomas Isidore Noël

(Encyclopedia)Sankara, Thomas 1948–87, president (1983–87) of Burkina Faso. Thomas Sankara, sometimes referred to as the African Che Guevara, was an activist, mil...

Wright, Frank Lloyd

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867–1959, American architect, b. Richland Center, Wis., as Frank Lincoln Wright; he changed his name to honor his mother's family (the Lloyd Joneses). Wright is widely consider...

reclamation of land

(Encyclopedia)reclamation of land, practice of converting land deemed unproductive into arable land by such methods as irrigation, drainage, flood control, altering the texture and mineral and organic content of so...

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...

Tuvalu

(Encyclopedia)Tuvalu to͞ovälˈo͞o [key], independent Commonwealth nation (2015 est. pop. 11,000), 10 sq mi (26 sq km), composed of nine low coral atolls, formerly known as the Ellice (or Lagoon) Islands, scatter...

Saint Paul

(Encyclopedia)Saint Paul, city (1990 pop. 272,235), state capital and seat of Ramsey co., E Minn., on bluffs along the Mississippi River, contiguous with Minneapolis, forming the Twin Cities metropolitan area; inc....

grass

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Edible grasses grass, any plant of the family Poaceae (formerly Gramineae), an important and widely distributed group of vascular plants, having an extraordinary range of adaptation. Numbering...

Great Awakening

(Encyclopedia)Great Awakening, series of religious revivals that swept over the American colonies about the middle of the 18th cent. It resulted in doctrinal changes and influenced social and political thought. In ...