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...

heaven

(Encyclopedia)heaven, blissful upper realm or state entered after death; in Western monotheistic religions it is the place where the just see God face to face (sometimes called the beatific vision). In Judaism, hea...

thermoelectricity

(Encyclopedia)thermoelectricity, direct conversion of heat into electric energy, or vice versa. The term is generally restricted to the irreversible conversion of electricity into heat described by the English phys...

Corby

(Encyclopedia)Corby, town and district, Northamptonshire, central England. Situated over one of the world's largest ironstone fields, Corby has grown rapidly since th...

Turner Valley

(Encyclopedia)Turner Valley, village (1991 pop. 1,352), SW Alta., Canada, at the foot of the Rocky Mts., on the Sheep River, SW of Calgary. It is in the center of the Turner Valley oil and natural gas fields, opene...

Balikpapan

(Encyclopedia)Balikpapan bäˈlēkpäˈpän [key], city, E Borneo (Kalimantan), Indonesia, on an inlet of Makasar ...

James, Cyril Lionel Robert

(Encyclopedia)James, C. L. R., 1901–1989, Trinidadian historian, journalist, and communist activist, b. Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago. A social theorist, anti-colon...

Canadian literature, English

(Encyclopedia)Canadian literature, English, literary works produced in Canada and written in the English language. The essayist Northrop Frye is noted for his systematic classification of literature, presented in...

Dutch language

(Encyclopedia)Dutch language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Also called Netherlandish, it is spoken by about 15 milli...

combustion

(Encyclopedia)combustion, rapid chemical reaction of two or more substances with a characteristic liberation of heat and light; it is commonly called burning. The burning of a fuel (e.g., wood, coal, oil, or natura...

Browse by Subject