Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Weber, Max, German sociologist

(Encyclopedia)Weber, Max vāˈbər [key], 1864–1920, German sociologist, economist, and political scientist. At various times he taught at Berlin, Freiburg, Munich, and Heidelberg. One of Weber's chief interests...

Keith, James Francis Edward

(Encyclopedia)Keith, James Francis Edward, 1696–1758, Scottish field marshal of Prussia; brother of George Keith, 10th earl marischal [marshal] of Scotland. He participated in the Jacobite uprising of 1715 and in...

Counter Reformation

(Encyclopedia)Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Pr...

Smith, Sydney

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Sydney, 1771–1845, English clergyman, writer, and wit, ordained in the Church of England in 1794. In 1798 he went as a tutor to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, occasionally preached, an...

Gerry, Elbridge Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Gerry, Elbridge Thomas, 1837–1927, American reformer, b. New York City; grandson of Elbridge Gerry. Admitted (1860) to the New York bar, he came to be adviser to the American Society for the Prevent...

Wentworth, Benning

(Encyclopedia)Wentworth, Benning, 1696–1770, American colonial governor, b. Portsmouth, N.H. A leading merchant of Portsmouth, he served in the colonial assembly and council, and, when New Hampshire was establish...

Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint klrvōˈ [key], 1090?–1153, French churchman, mystic, Doctor of the Church. Born of noble family, in 1112 he entered the Cistercian abbey of Cîteaux, taking along 4 or 5...

knight

(Encyclopedia)knight, in ancient and medieval history, a noble who did military service as a mounted warrior. As the feudal system disintegrated, knight service was with growing frequency commuted into cash pay...

Daughters of the American Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), a Colonial patriotic society in the United States, open to women having one or more ancestors who aided the cause of the Revolution. The society was organiz...

cult

(Encyclopedia)cult, ritual observances involved in worship of, or communication with, the supernatural or its symbolic representations. A cult includes the totality of ideas, activities, and practices associated wi...