Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Brownson, Orestes Augustus ôrĕsˈtēz, brounˈsən [key], 1803–76, American author and clergyman, b. Stockbridge, Vt. Largely self-taught, he became a vigorous and influential writer on social and...

(Encyclopedia) Burney, Fanny, later Madame D'Arblay därblāˈ [key], 1752–1840, English novelist, daughter of Charles Burney, the composer, organist, and music scholar. Although she received no formal education, ...

(Encyclopedia) government, system of social control under which the right to make laws, and the right to enforce them, is vested in a particular group in society. There are many classifications of government. Accord...

(Encyclopedia) functionalism, in anthropology and sociology, a theory stressing the importance of interdependence among all behavior patterns and institutions within a social system to its long-term survival. It was...

(Encyclopedia) Soros, George sôrˈōs [key], 1930–, American stock trader and philanthropist, b. Budapest, Hungary, as George Schwartz. He studied under Sir Karl Popper at the London School of Economics (grad. 19...

(Encyclopedia) Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805–79, American abolitionist, b. Newburyport, Mass. He supplemented his limited schooling with newspaper work and in 1829 went to Baltimore to aid Benjamin Lundy in publis...

(Encyclopedia) Leopold, Aldo, 1886–1948, American ecologist, b. Burlington, Iowa. He was an advocate for a “land ethic,” in which humans see themselves as part of a natural community. After work in the U.S. Fo...

(Encyclopedia) Manley, Mary de la Rivière, 1663–1724, English author, one of the first women to earn a living by writing. Notorious because of her marriage to her cousin, who was already married and who later des...

(Encyclopedia) Arkwright, Sir Richard, 1732–92, English inventor. His construction of a machine for spinning, the water frame, patented in 1769, was an early step in the Industrial Revolution. His machines and his...

(Encyclopedia) Ossining ŏsˈənĭng [key], village (1990 pop. 22,582), Westchester co., SE N.Y., on the Hudson River; settled c.1750, inc. 1813 as Sing Sing, renamed 1901. Mainly residential, Ossining produces medi...