Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Fontane, Theodor

(Encyclopedia)Fontane, Theodor tāˈōdôr fôntäˈnə [key], 1819–98, German writer. Although he is primarily important as a novelist, he did not begin to write fiction until he was almost 60 years old. Thereaf...

Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of lĕvˈən [key], 1580?–1661, Scottish general. He served in the Swedish army some 30 years, being knighted by Gustavus II and fighting in the Thirty Years War. R...

calendar

(Encyclopedia)calendar [Lat., from Kalends], system of reckoning time for the practical purpose of recording past events and calculating dates for future plans. The calendar is based on noting ordinary and easily o...

Jünger, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Jünger, Ernst ĕrnst yüngˈər [key], 1895–1998, German writer. Jünger's early war novels were based on arduous army experience. Strongly influenced by Nietzsche, they glorified war and its sacri...

Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Keegan, Sir John Desmond Patrick, 1934–2012, British military historian, b. London. The foremost British military historian of his era, he attended Oxford and after graduation went to the United Sta...

Dartmouth, town, England

(Encyclopedia)Dartmouth, town, Devon, SW England, on the Dart estuary. The principal feature of the town is Britannia Royal Naval College. Dartmouth has engineering a...

García y Iñigues, Calixto

(Encyclopedia)García y Iñigues, Calixto kälēkˈstō gärsēˈä ē ĕnyēˈgās [key], 1839–98, Cuban revolutionist, a leader in the Ten Years War (1868–78). Captured and imprisoned until 1878, he entered u...

Jacquerie

(Encyclopedia)Jacquerie zhäkˌərēˈ [key] [Fr.,=collection of Jacques, which is, like Jacques Bonhomme, a nickname for the French peasant], 1358, revolt of the French peasantry. The uprising was in part a reacti...

Williams, Ephraim

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Ephraim, 1715–55, American soldier, founder of Williams College, b. Newton, Mass. After several years as a sailor, he lived in Massachusetts and took part in defending the frontier against...

Brown, Joseph Emerson

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Joseph Emerson, 1821–94, U.S. public official, b. Pickens District, S.C. As governor of Georgia during the Civil War, Brown quarreled with Jefferson Davis over conscription and the suspension...