Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

233 results found

Whitewater, in U.S. history

(Encyclopedia)Whitewater, popular name for a failed 1970s Arkansas real estate venture by the Whitewater Development Corp., in which Gov. (later President) Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were pa...

Pierce, Franklin

(Encyclopedia)Pierce, Franklin, 1804–69, 14th President of the United States (1853–57), b. Hillsboro, N.H., grad. Bowdoin College, 1824. Admitted to the bar in 1827, he entered politics as a Jacksonian Democrat...

Charles II, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland

(Encyclopedia)Charles II, 1630–85, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660–85), eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria. Charles was a ruler of considerable political skill. His reign was m...

Marie Antoinette

(Encyclopedia)Marie Antoinette ăntwənĕtˈ, äNtwänĕtˈ [key], 1755–93, queen of France, wife of King Louis XVI and daughter of Austrian Archduchess Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. She was mar...

Hemingway, Ernest

(Encyclopedia)Hemingway, Ernest, 1899–1961, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Oak Park, Ill. one of the great American writers of the 20th cent. Hemingway's fiction usually focuses on people living ...

Dostoyevsky, Feodor Mikhailovich

(Encyclopedia)Dostoyevsky or Dostoevsky, Feodor Mikhailovich fyôˈdər mēkhīˈləvĭch dəstəyĕfˈskē [key], 1821–81, Russian novelist, one of the towering figures of world literature. Notes from the Unde...

Seward, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Seward, William Henry, 1801–72, American statesman, b. Florida, Orange co., N.Y. In 1861, Seward became Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln, and many expected him to be the real power in th...

Herod

(Encyclopedia)Herod, dynasty reigning in Palestine at the time of Jesus. As a dynasty the Herods depended largely on the power of Rome. They are usually blamed for the state of virtual anarchy in Palestine at the b...

Antony

(Encyclopedia)Antony or Marc Antony, Lat. Marcus Antonius, c.83 b.c.–30 b.c., Roman politican and soldier. He was of a distinguished family; his mother was a relative of Julius Caesar. Antony was notorious from h...

Abelard, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Abelard, Peter pyĕr äbālärˈ [key], 1079–1142, French philosopher and teacher, b. Le Pallet, near Nantes. A theological Platonist, Abelard emphasized Aristotle's dialectic method. His belief t...