Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hunkers, conservative faction of the Democratic party in New York state in the 1840s, so named because they were supposed to “hanker” or “hunker” after office. In opposition to them stood the ...

(Encyclopedia) Cooper, Thomas, 1759–1839, American scientist, educator, and political philosopher, b. London, educated at Oxford. His important works include Political Essays (1799); the appendixes to the Memoirs ...

(Encyclopedia) Jones, Mary Harris, 1830–1930, American labor agitator, called Mother Jones, b. Ireland. Interested in the labor movement for many years, she became active in it after the death of her husband and f...

(Encyclopedia) Katz, Alex, 1927–, American painter, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied Cooper Union, New York City (1946–49), Skowhegan School, Maine (1949–50). At a time when abstract expressionism captured most crit...

(Encyclopedia) Battle of the Bulge, popular name in World War II for the German counterattack in the Ardennes, Dec., 1944–Jan., 1945. More than a million men fought in what is also known as the Battle of the Ard...

(Encyclopedia) Strauss, Lewis Lichtenstein strôz [key], 1896–1974, American financier, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1953–58), b. Charleston, W.Va. In World War I he served under Herbert Hoover on t...

(Encyclopedia) Pyle, Ernie (Ernest Taylor Pyle), 1900–1945, American journalist, b. Dana, Ind. After working (1923–32) as a reporter, an editor, and an aviation writer, he became managing editor of the Washingto...

(Encyclopedia) Wigner, Eugene Paul wĭgˈnər [key], 1902–95, American physicist, b. Hungary, grad. Technische Hochschule, Berlin, 1925. He was a professor at Princeton from 1930 to 1936 and again from 1938 to 197...

(Encyclopedia) Riis, Jacob August rēs [key], 1849–1914, Danish-American journalist, photographer, and social reformer, b. Denmark. He immigrated to the United States in 1870. In 1877 he became a police reporter f...

(Encyclopedia) Schmeling, Max (Maximilian Schmeling), 1905–2005, German boxer. He debuted as a professional fighter in 1924 and came to the United States in 1928. Two years later the methodical slugger beat heavyw...