Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

country music

(Encyclopedia)country music, American popular music form originating in the Southern and Western United States. Country music is directly descended from the folk songs, ballads, and popular songs of the English, Sc...

guild socialism

(Encyclopedia)guild socialism, form of socialism developed in Great Britain that advocated a system of industrial self-government through national worker-controlled guilds. The theory, as originated by Arthur J. Pe...

Godwin, William

(Encyclopedia)Godwin, William, 1756–1836, English author and political philosopher. A minister in his youth, he was, however, plagued by religious doubts and gave up preaching in 1783 for a literary career. His E...

Foreign Legion

(Encyclopedia)Foreign Legion, French volunteer armed force composed chiefly, in its enlisted ranks, of foreigners. Its international character and the tradition of not revealing enlistees' backgrounds have helped t...

Ludwigsburg

(Encyclopedia)Ludwigsburg lo͞otˈvĭkhsbo͝orkhˌ [key], city (1994 pop. 86,220), Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany, near the Neckar River. It is a transportation and industrial center. Manufactures include machine t...

Kelley, Florence

(Encyclopedia)Kelley, Florence, 1859–1932, American social worker and reformer, b. Philadelphia, grad. Cornell, 1882, and Northwestern Univ. law school, 1894. Married in 1884 to a Polish doctor, Lazare Wishniewes...

Robinson-Patman Act

(Encyclopedia)Robinson-Patman Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1936 to supplement the Clayton Antitrust Act. The act, advanced by Congressman Wright Patman, forbade any person or firm engaged in interstate comme...

Welch, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Welch, William Henry, 1850–1934, American pathologist, b. Norfolk, Conn., grad. Yale (B.A., 1870), M.D. College of Physicians and Surgeons (now part of Columbia Univ., 1875). After studying abroad h...

Burke, Robert O'Hara

(Encyclopedia)Burke, Robert O'Hara, 1820–61, Irish explorer of Australia. After service in the Belgian and Austrian armies he went (1853) as inspector of police to Melbourne. In 1860, with W. J. Wills and eight o...

Bell, Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Andrew, 1753–1832, British educator, b. St. Andrews, Scotland. After seven years in Virginia as a tutor, he returned to England, was ordained a deacon, and later (1789) became superintendent o...

Browse by Subject