Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

O'Flaherty, Liam

(Encyclopedia)O'Flaherty, Liam lēˈəm ōflăˈhərtē [key], 1897–1984, Irish novelist, b. Aran Islands, Co. Galway. Many of his realistic novels have a compassionate interest in troubled people caught in the t...

National Forest System

(Encyclopedia)National Forest System, federally owned reserves, c.191 million acres (77.4 million hectares), administered by the Forest Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. The system is made up of 155 nationa...

commonwealth

(Encyclopedia)commonwealth, form of administration signifying government by the common consent of the people. To Locke and Hobbes and other 17th-century writers the term meant an organized political community simil...

Geshur

(Encyclopedia)Geshur gĕshˈyo͞orī, gĕshyo͞oˈrī [key], in the Bible. 1 Small Aramaic kingdom that remained in the territory allotted to Manasseh. It occupied barren land NE of the Sea of Galilee. After the di...

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

(Encyclopedia)Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, agency within the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, created (1995) as a result of the reorganization act passed (1994) by Congress. The agency co...

Captains' Revolution

(Encyclopedia)Captains' Revolution, coup staged (Apr. 25, 1974) by military officers who opposed Portugal's policy toward its African territories. By early 1974 dissatisfaction with the debilitating, seemingly endl...

Guam

(Encyclopedia)Guam gwäm [key], Chamorro Guåhan, officially Territory of Guam, the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands (see also Northern Mariana Islands), an unincorporated territory o...

Matovič, Igor

(Encyclopedia)Matovič, Igor, 1973–, Slovakian political leader. A businessman before he entered politics, he founded a publishing house that acquired control of a number of regional newspapers and also invested ...

Stoddert, Benjamin

(Encyclopedia)Stoddert, Benjamin, 1751–1813, U.S. government official, b. Charles County, Md. Joining the Continental Army as a captain at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he attained the rank of major. A ...

Scrope, Richard Le

(Encyclopedia)Scrope, Richard Le lə skro͞op [key], 1350?–1405, English archbishop. He probably studied law at both Oxford and Cambridge. Having taken priest's orders in 1377, he rose steadily in church rank. In...