Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Vanini, Lucilio

(Encyclopedia)Vanini, Lucilio lo͞ochēˈlyō vänēˈnē [key], c.1585–1619, Italian philosopher, who gave himself the name Julius Caesar. A freethinker, he was persecuted for his ideas and driven from one Europ...

Vedanta Societies

(Encyclopedia)Vedanta Societies, first and most influential Hindu organization in the West, founded by Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), a disciple of Indian mystic Ramakrishna (1836–86). Vivekananda attended an i...

Carpenter, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Carpenter, Mary, 1807–77, English educator. She devoted her life to the establishment of schools and institutions and the promotion of educational reforms. In 1835 she organized the Working and Visi...

Carson, Rachel Louise

(Encyclopedia)Carson, Rachel Louise, 1907–64, American writer and marine biologist, b. Springdale, Pa., M.A. Johns Hopkins, 1932. Her well-known books on sea life—Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea around Us (1...

Brahm, Otto

(Encyclopedia)Brahm, Otto ôˈtō bräm [key], 1856–1912, German theatrical director, manager and critic. Inspired by the work of Antoine in Paris, he founded a theater, the Freie Bühne, in Berlin in 1889. There...

Tappan, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Tappan, Arthur tăpˈən [key], 1786–1865, American abolitionist, b. Northampton, Mass. He made a fortune in the dry-goods business in New York City and with his brother and partner Lewis Tappan gav...

Cameron, Andrew Carr

(Encyclopedia)Cameron, Andrew Carr kămˈərən [key], 1834–90, American labor leader, b. Berwick-on-Tweed, England. He worked as a printer in Chicago, where he became interested in the labor movement. In the Wor...

Lollardry

(Encyclopedia)Lollardry lŏlˈyo͝ordrē [key] or Lollardy, medieval English movement for ecclesiastical reform, led by John Wyclif, whose “poor priests” spread his ideas about the countryside in the late 14th ...

intelligent design

(Encyclopedia)intelligent design, theory that some complex biological structures and other aspects of nature show evidence of having been designed by an intelligence. Such biological structures are said to have int...

Deloria, Vine Victor Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Deloria, Vine, Jr., 1933–2005, American author, theologian, historian, and activist, b. Marin, S.Dak. Considered by some to be the leading intellectua...