Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Negroponte, John Dimitri, 1939–, U.S. public official, b. London, England. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1960, and during his long diplomatic career was posted to Asia, Europe, Latin America...

(Encyclopedia) Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park: see National Parks and Monuments (table)national parks and monuments (table). ...

(Encyclopedia) Mailer, Norman (Norman Kingsley Mailer), 1923–2007, American writer, b. Long Branch, N.J., grad. Harvard, 1943. He grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., served in the army during World War II, and at the age o...

(Encyclopedia) Defense, United States Department of, executive department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to nationa...

(Encyclopedia) communism, fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of...

(Encyclopedia) Lee, Spike (Shelton Jackson Lee), 1957–, African-American filmmaker, b. Atlanta, Ga. As a student at New York Univ., he won recognition with his gradu...

(Encyclopedia) hunger strike, refusal to eat as a protest against existing conditions. Although most often used by prisoners, others have also employed it. For example, Mohandas Gandhi in India and César Chávez in...

(Encyclopedia) Kusama, Yayoi, 1929–, Japanese artist. In childhood she began to experience hallucinations, often of repeated dots, visions that have strongly influenced the imagery in her paintings, collages, scul...

(Encyclopedia) refugee, one who leaves one's native land either because of expulsion or to escape persecution. The legal problem of accepting refugees is discussed under asylum; this article considers only mass disl...

(Encyclopedia) Walsh, Lawrence Edward, 1912–2014, Canadian-born American lawyer, grad. Columbia (1932), Columbia law school (1935). Walsh's family moved to the Unite States while he was an infant. A Republican, he...