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United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

(Encyclopedia)United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), specialized agency of the United Nations, with headquarters in Paris. Its counterpart in the League of Nations was the Inter...

Pearl Harbor

(Encyclopedia)Pearl Harbor, land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, W of Honolulu; one of the largest and best natural harbors in the E Pacific Ocean. In the vicinity are many U.S. militar...

lend-lease

(Encyclopedia)lend-lease, arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II. Th...

shipping

(Encyclopedia)shipping, transportation of passengers and goods on waterways. From prehistoric times shipping has had a major influence on human social development. Water routes, unlike roads, did not need building,...

Karajan, Herbert von

(Encyclopedia)Karajan, Herbert von käräyänˈ [key], 1908–89, Austrian conductor. Karajan began his conducting career in 1927. After World War II his reputation spread through Europe to the United States. He to...

Calderón Guardia, Rafael Ángel

(Encyclopedia)Calderón Guardia, Rafael Ángel räfäĕlˈ ängˈhĕl käldārōnˈ gwärˈdēä [key], 1900–1970, president of Costa Rica (1940–44). A practicing physician, he entered politics in 1934, serving...

excise taxes

(Encyclopedia)excise taxes, governmental levies on specific goods produced and consumed inside a country. They differ from tariffs, which usually apply only to foreign-made goods, and from sales taxes, which typica...

propaganda

(Encyclopedia)propaganda, systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications. Modern propaganda is distinguished from other forms of commu...

Middle East

(Encyclopedia)Middle East, term traditionally applied by western Europeans to the countries of SW Asia and NE Africa lying W of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Thus defined it includes Cyprus, the Asian part of T...

affluent society

(Encyclopedia)affluent society, term coined by John Kenneth Galbraith in The Affluent Society (1958) to describe the United States after World War II. An affluent society, as the term was used ironically by Galbrai...