Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Wilson, Colin

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Colin, 1931–2013, English writer, b. Leicester. Born into a working-class family and largely self-educated, Wilson in many of his books exhorts humankind to expand its powers and realize its...

Ribbentrop, Joachim von

(Encyclopedia)Ribbentrop, Joachim von yōˈaäkhĭm fən rĭbˈəntrôp [key], 1893–1946, German foreign minister (1938–45). After World War I he became a wealthy champagne merchant. He joined the National Soci...

Scholes, Myron Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Scholes, Myron Samuel, 1941–, Canadian-American economist, b. Timmins, Ont., Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1969. He was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago (1968–83) and at Stanford (emeritus since 1996...

Holbrook, Hal

(Encyclopedia) Holbrook, Hal (Harold Rowe, Jr.), 1925-2021, American actor, b. Cleveland, Oh. (Denison Univ., BA, 1947). Holbrook was raised by his grandparents in S...

Alliance for Progress

(Encyclopedia)Alliance for Progress, Span. Alianza para el Progreso, U.S. assistance program for Latin America begun in 1961 during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. It was created principally to counter the appea...

engineering

(Encyclopedia)engineering, profession devoted to designing, constructing, and operating the structures, machines, and other devices of industry and everyday life. Until the Industrial Revolution there were only t...

Alexander the Great

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Empire of Alexander the Great (including dependencies) Alexander the Great or Alexander III, 356–323 b.c., king of Macedon, conqueror of much of Asia. Whether or not Alexander had plans fo...

Ligeti, György

(Encyclopedia)Ligeti, György, 1923–2006, Hungarian composer. He studied music in Romania and Hungary, and was a teacher at the Budapest Academy of Music until he fled to Vienna (1956) after the Soviet invasion o...

Gower, John

(Encyclopedia)Gower, John gouˈər, gôr [key], 1330?–1408, English poet. He was the best-known contemporary and friend of Chaucer, who addressed him as “Moral Gower,” at the end of Troilus and Criseyde. Appa...

Anderson, Maxwell

(Encyclopedia)Anderson, Maxwell, 1888–1959, American dramatist, b. Atlantic, Pa., grad. Univ. of North Dakota, 1911. His plays, many of which are written in verse, usually concern social and moral problems. Ander...
 

Browse by Subject