Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Socialist parties

(Encyclopedia)Socialist parties in European history, political organizations formed in European countries to achieve the goals of socialism. The French Socialist party, known as the SFIO from its official name ...

direct current

(Encyclopedia)direct current, abbr. DC, a movement of electric charge across an arbitrarily defined surface in one direction only. See electricity; generator. ...

book lung

(Encyclopedia)book lung, terrestrial respiratory organ characteristic of arachnids such as scorpions and primitive spiders. Each book lung consists of hollow flat plates. Air bathes the outer surface of the plates ...

Dugdale, Richard Louis

(Encyclopedia)Dugdale, Richard Louis dŭgˈdāl [key], 1841–83, American social investigator, b. Paris. While inspecting (1874) county jails for the New York Prison Association, he developed data for his famous s...

Chiluba, Frederick Jacob Titus

(Encyclopedia)Chiluba, Frederick Jacob Titus, 1943–2011, Zambian labor and political leader. After several low-level jobs, he joined a union and rose in the labor movement to become (1974) chairman of the Zambia ...

eurythmics

(Encyclopedia)eurythmics or eurhythmics both: yo͝orĭᵺˈmĭks [key], harmonious bodily movement, especially as expressed according to the system of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, who developed eurythmics (1903) at the ...

orphism

(Encyclopedia)orphism, a short-lived movement in art founded in 1912 by Robert Delaunay, Frank Kupka, the Duchamp brothers, and Roger de la Fresnaye. Apollinaire coined the term orphism to describe the lyrical, shi...

Brahmo Samaj

(Encyclopedia)Brahmo Samaj bräˈmō səmäjˈ [key] [Hindi,=society of God], Indian religious movement, founded in Kolkata (Calcutta) in 1828 by Rammohun Roy. It promoted a monotheistic, reformed Hinduism with str...

Townsend, Francis Everett

(Encyclopedia)Townsend, Francis Everett tounˈzənd [key], 1867–1960, American reformer, leader of an old-age pension movement, b. Fairbury, Ill., grad. Univ. of Nebraska medical school, 1903. He practiced medici...

San Andreas fault

(Encyclopedia)San Andreas fault, great fracture (see fault) of the earth's crust in California. It is the principal fault of an intricate network of faults extending more than 600 mi (965 km) from NW California to ...

Browse by Subject