Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) chemistry, branch of science concerned with the properties, composition, and structure of substances and the changes they undergo when they combine or react under specified conditions. Organic chemi...

(Encyclopedia) Lincoln, Abraham lĭngˈkən [key], 1809–65, 16th President of the United States (1861–65). As time passed Lincoln became more and more the object of adulation; a full-blown “Lincoln legend”...

(Encyclopedia) Mexican War, 1846–48, armed conflict between the United States and Mexico. The United States had won an easy victory, partly because Mexico, torn by civil strife, could not present a united fron...

(Encyclopedia) library, a collection of books or other written or printed materials, as well as the facility in which they are housed and the institution that is responsible for their maintenance. Modern libraries m...

(Encyclopedia) international law, body of rules considered legally binding in the relations between national states, also known as the law of nations. It is sometimes called public international law in contrast to p...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Europe yo͝orˈəp [key], 6th largest continent, c.4,000,000 sq mi (10,360,000 sq km) including adjacent islands (2015 est. pop. 740,814,000). It is actually a vast peninsula of the great Euras...

(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) biography, reconstruction in print or on film, of the lives of real men and women. Together with autobiography—an individual's interpretation of his own life—it shares a venerable tradition, meeti...

(Encyclopedia) children's book illustration, any type of picture or decorative work produced for books specifically intended for a youthful audience. During the 1960s a number of seldom-used techniques were introd...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Maryland mârˈələnd [key], one of the Middle Atlantic states of the United States. It is bounded by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean (E), the District of Columbia (S), Virginia and West Virgi...