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Bright, John

(Encyclopedia)Bright, John, 1811–89, British statesman and orator. He was the son of a Quaker cotton manufacturer in Lancashire. A founder (1839) of the Anti-Corn Law League, he rose to prominence on the strength...

Hughes, Ted

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, Ted (Edward James Hughes), 1930–98, English poet, b. Mytholmyroyd, Yorkshire, studied Cambridge. Hughes's best poetry focuses on the unsentimental within nature. His poems are marked by cont...

matriarchy

(Encyclopedia)matriarchy, familial and political rule by women. Many contemporary anthropologists reject the claims of J. J. Bachofen and Lewis Morgan that early societies were matriarchal, although some contempora...

West Nile virus

(Encyclopedia)West Nile virus, microorganism and the infection resulting from it, which typically produces no symptoms or a flulike condition. The virus is a flavivirus and is related to a number of viruses that ca...

Berry, Wendell Erdman

(Encyclopedia)Berry, Wendell Erdman, 1934–, American farmer, environmentalist, and writer, b. Henry co., Ky., grad. Univ of Kentucky (B.A., 1956; M.A., 1957). He taught at various colleges including his alma mate...

Cumberland, Richard, 1631–1718, English philosopher

(Encyclopedia)Cumberland, Richard, 1631–1718, English philosopher. He was bishop of Peterborough from 1691. In his De legibus naturae [on natural laws] (1672) he first propounded the doctrine of utilitarianism an...

Hammurabi

(Encyclopedia)Hammurabi hämo͝oräˈbē [key], fl. 1792–1750 b.c., king of Babylonia. He founded an empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. Hammurabi may have begun building the tower of B...

separation

(Encyclopedia)separation, in law, either the voluntary agreement of husband and wife to live apart or a partial dissolution of the marriage relation by court order. The marriage bond remains, and remarriage of eith...

air, law of the

(Encyclopedia)air, law of the, in the broadest sense, all law connected with the use of the air, including radio and satellite transmissions; more commonly, it refers to laws concerning civil aviation. The developm...

gay-rights movement

(Encyclopedia)gay-rights movement, organized efforts to end the criminalization of homosexuality and protect the civil rights of homosexuals. While there was some organized activity on behalf of the rights of homos...