Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Roth, Alvin Elliot

(Encyclopedia)Roth, Alvin Elliot, 1951–, American economist, b. New York City, Ph.D Stanford, 1974. He has been a professor in economics and business administration at the Univ. of Illinois (1974–82), the Univ....

Cassin, René

(Encyclopedia)Cassin, René rənāˈ cäsăNˈ [key], 1887–1976, French jurist and humanitarian. He studied law at the universities of Aix-en-Provence and Paris, earned (1914) a doctorate, and practiced until Wor...

Dawes Plan

(Encyclopedia)Dawes Plan, presented in 1924 by the committee headed (1923–24) by Charles G. Dawes to the Reparations Commission of the Allied nations. It was accepted the same year by Germany and the Allies. The ...

Curtis, Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar

(Encyclopedia)Curtis, Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar, 1850–1933, American publisher and philanthropist, b. Portland, Maine. He started his first periodical, The People's Ledger, in Boston in 1872. Later, in Philadelphi...

fine

(Encyclopedia)fine. 1 In criminal law, sum of money exacted by a lawful tribunal as punishment for a crime. In the case of misdemeanors and minor infractions of the law, convicted persons ordinarily have the altern...

Nemtsov, Boris Yefimovich

(Encyclopedia)Nemtsov, Boris Yefimovich, 1959–2015, Russian physicist and politician. He worked at the Gorky Radiophysics Research Institute (1981–90) before he was elected to the Soviet Congress of People's De...

pawnbroker

(Encyclopedia)pawnbroker, one who makes loans on personal effects that are left as security. The practice of pawnbroking is ancient, as is recognition of the danger it involves of oppressing the poor. In fact, the ...

wampum

(Encyclopedia)wampum wämˈpəm [key] [New England Algonquian,=white string of beads], beads or disks made by Native Americans from the shells of mollusks found on the eastern coast or along the larger rivers of No...

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

(Encyclopedia)Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, 1803–73, English novelist. The son of Gen. William Bulwer and Elizabeth Lytton, he assumed the name Bulwer-Lytton in 1843 when he inherit...

Breslin, Jimmy

(Encyclopedia)Breslin, Jimmy (James Earl Breslin), 1928–2017, American journalist, b. Queens, N.Y. A reporter, columnist, and author, he was a tough and witty voice for working-class New Yorkers. He began as a ne...