Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

329 results found

France, Anatole

(Encyclopedia)France, Anatole zhäk, tēbōˈ [key], 1844–1924, French writer. He was probably the most prominent French man of letters of his time. Among his best-remembered works is L'Île des pingouins (1908, ...

Henry, Pierre Georges

(Encyclopedia)Henry, Pierre Georges, 1927–2017, French composer noted for his contributions to electronic music. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory, where he met Pierre...

Cassini

(Encyclopedia)Cassini käs-sēˈnē [key], name of a family of Italian-French astronomers, four generations of whom were directors of the Paris Observatory. Gian Domenico Cassini, 1625–1712, was born in Italy and...

Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore

(Encyclopedia)Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore mäksēmēlyăNˈ märēˈ ēzēdôrˈ rôbĕspyĕrˈ [key], 1758–94, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution. The law of 22 Prairial (June 10) ...

structuralism

(Encyclopedia)structuralism, theory that uses culturally interconnected signs to reconstruct systems of relationships rather than studying isolated, material things in themselves. This method found wide use from th...

social contract

(Encyclopedia)social contract, agreement or covenant by which men are said to have abandoned the “state of nature” to form the society in which they now live. The theory of such a contract, first formulated by ...

Juppé, Alain

(Encyclopedia)Juppé, Alain älăNˈ zhüpāˈ [key], 1945–, French politician, b. Les Landes. A member of the Gaullist Rally for the Republic (RPR), he entered the Inspection des Finances in 1972. A protegé of ...

Duchamp, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Duchamp, Marcel märsĕlˈ düshäNˈ [key], 1887–1968, French painter, brother of Raymond Duchamp-Villon and half-brother of Jacques Villon. Duchamp is noted for his cubist-futurist painting Nude D...

Hume, David

(Encyclopedia)Hume, David hyo͞om [key], 1711–76, Scottish philosopher and historian. Educated at Edinburgh, he lived (1734–37) in France, where he finished his first philosophical work, A Treatise of Human Nat...

Iberville, Pierre le Moyne, sieur d'

(Encyclopedia)Iberville, Pierre le Moyne, sieur d' pyĕr lə mwän syör dēbĕrvēlˈ [key], 1661–1706, French Canadian naval officer, founder of the French territory of Louisiana, b. Ville Marie (in present Mon...
 

Browse by Subject