Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Rubens, Peter Paul, 1577–1640, foremost Flemish painter of the 17th cent., b. Siegen, Westphalia, where his family had gone into exile because of his father's Calvinist beliefs. Almost every princ...

(Encyclopedia) American literature, literature in English produced in what is now the United States of America. The years immediately after World War I brought a highly vocal rebellion against established socia...

(Encyclopedia) magic, in entertainment, the seeming manipulation and supernatural control of the natural world for the amusement and amazement of an audience. Entertainment magic can be divided into four main catego...

(Encyclopedia) Brazilian literature, the writings of both the European explorers of Brazil and its later inhabitants. In 1902 Euclides da Cunha wrote his masterly description of an uprising in the Brazilian northe...

(Encyclopedia) civil rights, rights that a nation's inhabitants enjoy by law. The term is broader than “political rights,” which refer only to rights devolving from the franchise and are held usually only by a c...

(Encyclopedia) musicals, earlier known as musical comedies, plays that incorporate music, song, and dance. These elements move with the plot, heightening and commenting on the action. Mixing the sprightly songs and ...

(Encyclopedia) Knights Hospitalers, members of the military and religious Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, sometimes called the Knights of St. John and the Knights of Jerusalem. The symbol of the Orde...

(Encyclopedia) Spanish-American War, 1898, brief conflict between Spain and the United States arising out of Spanish policies in Cuba. It was, to a large degree, brought about by the efforts of U.S. expansionists. ...

(Encyclopedia) Panama Canal, waterway across the Isthmus of Panama, connecting the Atlantic (by way of the Caribbean Sea) and Pacific oceans, built by the United States (1904–14, on territory leased from the repub...

(Encyclopedia) Declaration of Independence, full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Brita...