Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Parsons, Talcott, 1902–79, American sociologist, b. Colorado Springs, Colo., educated at Amherst College (B.A., 1924), London School of Economics, and Univ. of Heidelberg (Ph.D., 1927). He was on th...

(Encyclopedia) Patterson, P. J. (Percival James Patterson), 1935–, Jamaican political leader, prime minister of Jamaica (1992–2006). A lawyer, he became an active member of the People's National party (PNP) in t...

(Encyclopedia) Samuel, Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount, 1870–1963, British statesman. Entering Parliament as a Liberal in 1902, he was postmaster general (1910–14, 1915–16) and home secretary (1916). He los...

(Encyclopedia) Rivette, Jacques Pierre Louis, 1928–2016, French filmmaker and critic b. Rouen. One of the French New Wave directors of the 1950s and 60s, he wrote criticism for the influential journal Cahiers du C...

(Encyclopedia) Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon Bonaparte), 1808–73, emperor of the French (1852–70), son of Louis Bonaparte (see under Bonaparte, family), king of Holland. Napoleon III was a complex figure. H...

(Encyclopedia) Nielsen, Carl nēlˈsən, Dan. nĭlˈsən [key], 1865–1931, Danish composer. Nielsen was a pupil of Niels Gade at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen. Considered Denmark's foremost composer, he is ...

(Encyclopedia) Herskovits, Melville Jean hûrsˈkəvĭts [key], 1895–1963, American anthropologist, b. Bellefontaine, Ohio; educated at the Univ. of Chicago (Ph.B., 1920) and Columbia (Ph.D., 1923). After teaching...

(Encyclopedia) Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de shärl lwē də səkôNdäˈ bärôNˈ də lä brĕd ā də môNtĕskyüˈ [key], 1689–1755, French jurist and political philosopher....

(Encyclopedia) Superior, Lake, largest freshwater lake in the world, 31,820 sq mi (82,414 sq km), 350 mi (563 km) long and 160 mi (257 km) at its greatest width, bordered on the W by NE Minnesota, on the N and E by ...

(Encyclopedia) King William Island, part of the Arctic Archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean, Nunavut Territory, Canada, between Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. The northern coast of the island was explored (1831)...