Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) intelligence, in psychology, the general mental ability involved in calculating, reasoning, perceiving relationships and analogies, learning quickly, storing and retrieving information, using language...

(Encyclopedia) prison, place of confinement for the punishment and rehabilitation of criminals. By the end of the 18th cent. imprisonment was the chief mode of punishment for all but capital crimes. At that time, la...

(Encyclopedia) progressivism, in U.S. history, a broadly based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th cent. In the decades following the Civil War rapid industrialization transformed the United St...

(Encyclopedia) ballad, in literature and music, short, narrative poem or song usually relating a single, dramatic event. Two forms of the ballad are often distinguished—the folk ballad, dating from about the 12th ...

(Encyclopedia) Conservative party, British political party, formally the Conservative and Unionist party and a continuation of the historic Tory party. In 1965, Edward Heath became the first leader chosen thro...

(Encyclopedia) Henry VIII, 1491–1547, king of England (1509–47), second son and successor of Henry VII. Henry was a supreme egotist. He advanced personal desires under the guise of public policy or moral rig...

(Encyclopedia) art conservation and restoration, the preservation of structurally sound works of art, the halting of processes that lead to the damage of works of art, and the repair of already damaged works of art....

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Power reactor system nuclear reactor, device for producing controlled release of nuclear energy. Reactors can be used for research or for power production. A research reactor is designed to pr...

(Encyclopedia) uranium yo͞orāˈnēəm [key], radioactive metallic chemical element; symbol U; at. no. 92; mass number of most stable isotope 238; m.p. 1,132℃; b.p. 3,818℃; sp. gr. 19.1 at 25℃; valence +3, +4...

(Encyclopedia) outsider art, artwork created by typically unconventional and untrained artists from the margins of society and the art world. The term was coined in 1972 by British scholar and art critic Roger Cardi...