Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Spengler, Oswald spĕngˈglər, Ger. ôsˈvält shpĕngˈglər [key], 1880–1936, German historian and philosopher. His studies covered many fields, among them mathematics, science, philosophy, histo...

(Encyclopedia) Nazca or Nasca both: näsˈkä [key], ancient culture of the Nazca, Pisco, and Ica river valleys on the desert coast of S Peru. Flourishing during the first millennium a.d., the Nazca culture seems to...

(Encyclopedia) Basket Makers, name given to the members of an early Native North American culture in the Southwest, predecessors of the Pueblo. Because of the cultural continuity from the Basket Makers to the Pueblo...

(Encyclopedia) Carolingian architecture and art, art forms and structures created by the Carolingians. Toward the beginning of the Carolingian Period, in the 8th cent., a gradual change appeared in Western culture a...

(Encyclopedia) Dorians, people of ancient Greece. Their name was mythologically derived from Dorus, son of Hellen. Originating in the northwestern mountainous region of Epirus and SW Macedonia, they migrated through...

(Encyclopedia) Fiedler, Leslie, 1917–2003, American critic, b. Newark, N.J., grad. New York Univ. (B.A. 1938), Univ. of Wisconsin (Ph.D. 1941). In his best-known and most controversial work, Love and Death in the ...

(Encyclopedia) Lasch, Christopher lăsh [key], 1932–94, American historian, b. Omaha, Neb., grad. Harvard, 1956, Ph.D., Columbia, 1961. After teaching at the Univ. of Iowa (1961–66) and Northwestern Univ. (1966�...

(Encyclopedia) Sogdiana sŏgdēāˈnə [key], part of the ancient Persian Empire in central Asia between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers. Corresponding to the later emirate of Bukhara and region...

(Encyclopedia) Sontag, Susan sŏnˈtäg [key], 1933–2004, American writer and critic, b. New York City. She grew up in Arizona and California, studied philosophy at the Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford, absor...

(Encyclopedia) Livonia lĭvōˈnēə [key], region and former Russian province, comprising present Estonia and parts of Latvia (Vidzeme and Latgale). It borders on the Baltic Sea and its arms, the Gulf of Riga and t...