Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) business cycles, fluctuations in economic activity characterized by periods of rising and falling fiscal health. During a business cycle, an economy grows, reaches a peak, and then begins a downturn f...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Purslane, Portulaca oleraceae purslane, common name for some plants of the Portulaceae, a family of herbs and a few small shrubs, chiefly of the Americas. The portulacas or purslanes (genus Po...

(Encyclopedia) Tauler, Johannes yōhänˈəs touˈlər [key], c.1300–1361, German mystic. He was a Dominican. He met Meister Eckhart, either at Strasbourg or in Cologne, where he went to study, and he was one of E...

(Encyclopedia) Brubeck, Dave (David Warren Brubeck) bro͞oˈbĕk [key], 1920–2012, American pianist an...

(Encyclopedia) Portland. 1 City (1990 pop. 64,358), seat of Cumberland co., SW Maine, situated on a small peninsula and adjacent land, with a large, deepwater harbor on Casco Bay; settled c.1632, set off from Falmou...

(Encyclopedia) Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel ...

(Encyclopedia) Thompson, David, 1770–1857, Canadian geographer, fur trader, and explorer, b. London, England. In 1784 he came to Fort Churchill, Canada, as an apprentice of the Hudson's Bay Company, and until 1797...

(Encyclopedia) Greenfield <1> City (2020 pop. 18,937), Monterey co., SW Calif.; inc. 1947. Thirty-three miles SE of Salinas, the town was originally founded in 1...

(Encyclopedia) livery companies, London trade guilds incorporated by royal charter, deriving their name from the assumption of distinctive dress (livery) by their members. Edward III granted the first charters in th...

(Encyclopedia) Nevins, Allan, 1890–1971, American historian, b. Camp Point, Ill. After studying at the Univ. of Illinois, he followed a career in journalism until 1927. Teaching at Columbia from 1928, he became a ...