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agricultural subsidies

(Encyclopedia)agricultural subsidies, financial assistance to farmers through government-sponsored price-support programs. Beginning in the 1930s most industrialized countries developed agricultural price-support p...

Mann, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Mann, Tom, 1856–1941, British labor leader and socialist. He was an organizer of the 1889 London dock strike, which was an important step in the unionization of unskilled English laborers. Secretary...

Zanardelli, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Zanardelli, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā dzänärdĕlˈlē [key], 1826–1903, Italian politician and premier (1901–3). As minister of justice (1881–83, 1887–91) he prepared a new penal code, which w...

Abbott, Grace

(Encyclopedia)Abbott, Grace, 1878–1939, American social worker, b. Grand Island, Nebr. She did notable work as director (1921–34) of the Child Labor Division of the U.S. Children's Bureau. The Child and the Sta...

zombi

(Encyclopedia)zombi or zombie both: zŏmˈbē [key], in voodoo, a person believed to have been raised from the grave by a houngan [sorcerer] for purposes of enslavement. The zombi is used by its master to perform h...

Shatsky, Stanislaus

(Encyclopedia)Shatsky, Stanislaus, 1878–1934, Russian educator. After graduating from Moscow Univ. and attending the Moscow Agricultural Institute, Shatsky organized (1905) a colony for workers' children known as...

Adams, Henry Carter

(Encyclopedia)Adams, Henry Carter, 1851–1921, American economist, b. Davenport, Iowa. He developed an interest in public finance at Johns Hopkins and pursued this field during later studies in Germany. He taught ...

harvester

(Encyclopedia)harvester, farm machine that mechanically harvests a crop. Small-grain harvesting has been mechanized to a certain extent since early times. In the modern period the first harvester to gain general ac...

Mboya, Thomas Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Mboya, Thomas Joseph mboiˈə [key], 1930–69, Kenyan political leader. The son of a Luo farmer, he was born in the “white highlands” of Kenya and educated at Roman Catholic mission schools. Earl...

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