Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques än rōbĕrˈ zhäk türgōˈ [key], 1727–81, French economist, comptroller general of finances (1774–76). The son of a rich merchant, he showed precocious ability at s...

(Encyclopedia) Whitewater, popular name for a failed 1970s Arkansas real estate venture by the Whitewater Development Corp., in which Gov. (later President) Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were pa...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Barbados bärbāˈdōz [key], island state (2020 est. pop. 287,371), 166 sq mi (430 sq km), in ...

(Encyclopedia) De Lancey də lănˈsē [key], family of political leaders, soldiers, and merchants prominent in colonial New York. Étienne De Lancey or Stephen De Lancey, 1663–1741, b. Caen, France, was among the...

(Encyclopedia) Cistercians sĭstrˈshənz [key], monks of a Roman Catholic religious order founded (1098) by St. Robert, abbot of Molesme, in Cîteaux [Cistercium], Côte-d'Or dept., France. They reacted against Clu...

(Encyclopedia) transcontinental railroad, in U.S. history, rail connection with the Pacific coast. In 1845, Asa Whitney presented to Congress a plan for the federal government to subsidize the building of a railroad...

(Encyclopedia) Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), organization established by Civil War veterans of the Union army and navy. Principal figures in the founding of the GAR were John A. Logan and Richard J. Oglesby. The...

(Encyclopedia) Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh Auden) ôˈdən [key], 1907–73, Anglo-American poet, b. York, England, educated at Oxford. A versatile, vigorous, and technically skilled poet, Auden ranks among the major ...

(Encyclopedia) naturalism, in literature, an approach that proceeds from an analysis of reality in terms of natural forces, e.g., heredity, environment, physical drives. The chief literary theorist on naturalism was...

(Encyclopedia) butter, dairy product obtained by churning the fat from milk until it solidifies. In most areas the milk of cows is the basis, but elsewhere that of goats, sheep, and mares has been used. Butter was k...