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Rubens, Peter Paul

(Encyclopedia)Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

Clarke, Arthur C.

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Arthur C. (Sir Arthur Charles Clarke), 1917–2008, British science fiction writer. During World War II he served as a radar instructor and aviator in the Royal Air Force. After the war he obt...

Hudson River school

(Encyclopedia)Hudson River school, group of American landscape painters, working from 1825 to 1875. The 19th-century romantic movements of England, Germany, and France were introduced to the United States by such w...

induction, in logic

(Encyclopedia)induction, in logic, a form of argument in which the premises give grounds for the conclusion but do not necessitate it. Induction is contrasted with deduction, in which true premises do necessitate t...

American Indian Movement

(Encyclopedia)American Indian Movement (AIM), Native American civil-rights activist organization, founded in 1968 to encourage self-determination among Native Americans and to establish international re...

Malesherbes, Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de

(Encyclopedia)Malesherbes, Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de krātyăNˈ gēyōmˈ də lämwänyôNˈ də mälzĕrbˈ [key], 1721–94, French minister of state. After serving as counselor to the Parlement of Par...

beat generation

(Encyclopedia)beat generation, term applied to certain American artists and writers who were popular during the 1950s. Essentially anarchic, members of the beat generation rejected traditional social and artistic f...

Wilson, August

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, August, 1945–2005, American playwright and poet, b. Pittsburgh as Frederick August Kittel, Jr. Largely self-educated, Wilson first attracted wide critical attention with his Broadway debut, ...

Veblen, Thorstein

(Encyclopedia)Veblen, Thorstein thôrˈstīn vĕbˈlən [key], 1857–1929, American economist and social critic, b. Cato Township, Wis. Of Norwegian parentage, he spent his first 17 years in Norwegian-American far...

hajj

(Encyclopedia)hajj häj [key], the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, one of the five basic requirements (arkan or “pillars”) of Islam. Its annual observance corresponds to the major holy day id al-adha, itself...