Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Ravalomanana, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Ravalomanana, Marc märk rävälōmänänˈ [key], 1949–, Malagasy political leader. He made a fortune manufacturing dairy products and began his political career in 1999 when he was elected mayor o...

Tanaka, Giichi

(Encyclopedia)Tanaka, Giichi gē-ēˈchē täˈnäkä [key], 1863–1929, Japanese statesman and general. He is famous as the alleged author of the so-called Tanaka Memorial (1927), purporting to set forth Japan's ...

Protestant Union

(Encyclopedia)Protestant Union, in German history, an alliance of German Protestant leaders of cities and states, founded in 1608 for the avowed purpose of defending the lands, person, and rights of each individual...

Powell, Lewis Franklin, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Powell, Lewis Franklin, Jr., 1907–98, American lawyer, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1971–87), b. Suffolk, Va. He studied law at Washington and Lee Univ. and was admitted to the Vir...

cruelty, prevention of

(Encyclopedia)cruelty, prevention of. In the 19th cent. many laws were passed in Great Britain and the United States to protect the helpless, especially children, lunatics, and domestic animals, from willful and ma...

corporal punishment

(Encyclopedia)corporal punishment, physical chastisement of an offender. At one extreme it includes the death penalty (see capital punishment), but the term usually refers to punishments like flogging, caning, muti...

Conrad, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Conrad, Joseph, 1857–1924, English novelist, b. Berdichev, Russia (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), originally named Jósef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski. Born of Polish parents, he is considered one of...

Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de

(Encyclopedia)Chateaubriand, François René, vicomte de fräNswäˈ rənāˈ vēkôNtˈ də shätōbrēäNˈ [key], 1768–1848, French writer. Chateaubriand was a founder of romanticism in French literature. Of n...

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb

(Encyclopedia)Fichte, Johann Gottlieb yōˈhän gôtˈlēp fĭkhˈtə [key], 1762–1814, German philosopher. After studying theology at Jena and working as a tutor in Zürich and Leipzig, he became interested in K...

Goytisolo, Juan

(Encyclopedia)Goytisolo, Juan (Juan Goytisolo Gay) hwän goitēsōˈlō [key], 1931–2017, Spanish writer, b. Barcelona. Goytisolo is considered among the foremost novelists who wrote in Spanish in the late 20th c...