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Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1795–1858, American political leader and cabinet officer

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Benjamin Franklin, 1795–1858, American political leader and cabinet officer, b. Columbia co., N.Y. Butler, like his former law associate, Martin Van Buren, was a member of the Albany Regency...

Platonov, Andrei

(Encyclopedia)Platonov, Andrei ändrāˈ plŏˈtənûf [key], 1899–1951, Russian novelist and short-story writer. Platonov's writing focuses on the threat industrialization poses to human and spiritual values. Hi...

Bennigsen, Rudolf von

(Encyclopedia)Bennigsen, Rudolf von ro͞oˈdôlf fən bĕnˈĭksən [key], 1824–1902, German political leader. A liberal nationalist from Hanover, he favored German unification under a democratic Prussian state. ...

Canby, Henry Seidel

(Encyclopedia)Canby, Henry Seidel, 1878–1961, American editor and critic, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Yale, 1899. He taught at Yale for over 20 years, achieving professorial rank in 1922. He established and edited...

Astoria

(Encyclopedia)Astoria ăstôrˈēə [key]. 1 Commercial, industrial, and residential section of NW Queens borough of New York City, SE N.Y.; settled in the 17th cent. as Hallet's Cove. It was renamed for John Jacob...

windmill

(Encyclopedia)windmill, apparatus that harnesses wind power for a variety of uses, e.g., pumping water, grinding corn, driving small sawmills, and driving electrical generators. Windmills were probably not known in...

Maduro Moros, Nicolás

(Encyclopedia)Maduro Moros, Nicolás nēkōläsˈ mädo͞oˈrō mōˈrōs [key], 1962–, Venezuelan trade union and political leader. He was trained as a union organizer in Cuba, and later became a leader in an un...

Shiller, Robert James

(Encyclopedia)Shiller, Robert James, 1946–, American economist, b. Detroit, grad. Univ. of Michigan (B.A., 1967), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.M., 1968; Ph.D., 1972). A professor at Yale since 1982, S...

Fulbright, James William

(Encyclopedia)Fulbright, James William, 1905–95, U.S. Senator from Arkansas (1945–75), b. Sumner, Mo. A Rhodes scholar, he was admitted (1934) to the bar and served (1934–35) in the antitrust division of the ...

Yazoo land fraud

(Encyclopedia)Yazoo land fraud, name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislat...