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Randolph, Asa Philip

(Encyclopedia)Randolph, Asa Philip, 1889–1979, U.S. labor leader, b. Crescent City, Fla., attended the College of the City of New York. As a writer and editor of the black magazine The Messenger, which he helped ...

Commerce, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Commerce, United States Department of, federal executive department charged with promoting U.S. economic development and technological advancement. In Feb., 1903, the Congress established a Department...

Irish Land Question

(Encyclopedia)Irish Land Question, name given in the 19th cent. to the problem of land ownership and agrarian distress in Ireland under British rule. The long-term result of conquest, confiscation, and colonization...

boycott

(Encyclopedia)boycott, concerted economic or social ostracism of an individual, group, or nation to express disapproval or coerce change. The practice was named (1880) after Capt. Charles Cunningham Boycott, an Eng...

Morgan, Edmund Sears

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, Edmund Sears, 1916–2013, U.S. historian, b. Minneapolis. After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1942, he taught at the Univ. of Chicago (1945–46) and at Brown (1946–55) before becomin...

packaging

(Encyclopedia)packaging, containment and packing prior to sale with the primary purpose of facilitating the purchase and use of a product. Before 1800 packaging was restricted almost entirely to containment for shi...

housing

(Encyclopedia)housing, in general, living accommodations available for the inhabitants of a community. Throughout the 19th cent., with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, housing as a problem worsened as urban...

picketing

(Encyclopedia)picketing, act of patrolling a place of work affected by a strike in order to discourage its patronage, to make public the workers' grievances, and in some cases to prevent strikebreakers from taking ...

Morris, Richard Brandon

(Encyclopedia)Morris, Richard Brandon, 1904–89, American historian, b. New York City. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1930, taught (1927–49) at the College of the City of New York, became a professor at ...

International Civil Aviation Organization

(Encyclopedia)International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), specialized agency of the United Nations, organized in 1947, with headquarters at Montreal. The objective of the ICAO, which has 190 member nations, i...

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