As part of a unique series covering the grand sweep of Western civilization from ancient to present times, this biographical dictionary provides introductory information on 315 leading cultural figures of late medieval and early modern Europe. Taking a cultural approach not typically found in general biographical dictionaries, the work includes literary, philosophical, artistic, military, religious, humanistic, musical, economic, and exploratory figures. Political figures are included only if they patronized the arts, and coverage focuses on their cultural impact. Figures from western European countries, such as Italy, France, England, Iberia, the Low Countries, and the Holy Roman Empire predominate, but outlying areas such as Scotland, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe are also represented.

Late medieval Europe was an age of crisis. With the Papacy removed to Avignon, the schism in the Catholic Church shook the very core of medieval belief. The Hundred Years' War devastated France. The Black Death decimated the population. Yet out of this crisis grew an age of renewal, leading to the Renaissance. The great Italian city-states developed. Humanism reawakened interest in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Dante and Boccaccio began writing in their Tuscan vernacular. Italian artists became humanists and flourished. As the genius of Italy began spreading to northern and western Europe at the end of the 15th century, the age of renewal was completed. This book provides thorough basic information on the major cultural figures of this tumultuous era of crisis and renewal.

Neurology abounds with eponyms--Babinski's sign, Guillian-Barre' sundrome, Alzheimer's disease, etc. Neurologists and neuroscientists, however, are often hazy about the origin of these terms. This book brings together 55 of the most common eponyms related to the neurological examination, neuroanatomy, and neurological diseases. The chapters have a uniform structure: a short biography, a discussion of and a quotation from the original publication, and a discussion of the subsequent evolution and significance of the eponym. Photographs of all but one of the eponymists have been included. The material is organized into sections on anatomy and pathology, symptoms and signs, reflexes and tests, clinical syndromes, and diseases and defects. The selection of eponyms was based on the frequency of use, familiarity of clinical neurologists with the concept, and the significance within neurology of the individual who coined the eponym. This volume covers some of the classic ideas in the history of clinical neurology. It will be of interest to neurologists, neuroscientists, medical historians, and their students and trainees.

Over the past two decades, the process of cultural development and, in particular, the role of reading has been of growing interest, but recent research has been episodic and idiosyncratic. In this biographical dictionary, research devoted specifically to the reading habits of 19th century individuals who shaped Western culture is brought together for the first time. While giving prominent coverage to literary and political figures, the volume's 270 entries also include musicians, painters, educators, and explorers. Each entry includes brief biographical information, a concise summary of literary influences on the subject, and clear direction for further research. The book provides a practical tool for scholars wishing to trace the reading experience of important Western cultural figures.

Subjects were selected from the people most responsible for the cultural development of Europe, Britain and the British Empire, and the Americas between 1800 and 1914. Although selective, the sample of 270 figures is substantial enough to suggest broad, cross-cultural habits and effects, enabling scholars to better understand the relationship between reading and culture. In an introductory essay, Powell explores the patterns and relationships that can be discerned from the entries. The first of three anticipated volumes, the book is an important step forward in researching the role of reading in cultural development.

Covering the period comprising the Renaissance and Reformation, this volume introduces a unique set of interdisciplinary biographical dictionaries providing basic information on the people who have contributed significantly to the culture of Western civilization. Unlike general dictionaries which focus on political and military figures, this book covers such figures as the religious leaders who contributed to the Reformation, scientists who paved the way for a new view of the universe, and Renaissance painters, sculptors, and architects, as well as writers, musicians, and scholars. While the great personalities are included--Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Galileo--the volume covers lesser known figures as well--the Muslim scholar Leo Africanus, the Flemish geographer-astronomer Gemma Frisius, the English travel writer Thomas Coryate. Although many of the subjects also had political influence, the entries are written to highlight their individual cultural achievement.

An exciting, tumultuous, and chaotic age, the years from 1500 to 1620 saw increasing discontent with Catholicism and the beginning of Protestantism with Luther's 95 theses, great strides in the development of the printing press and a resulting increase in literacy, the humanist movement with its emphasis on the arts of antiquity, a proliferation of literature and art inspired by but moving beyond classical forms, and conflict between the triumph of Renaissance culture and the theologians of the Protestant Reformation. The resulting cultural production was astounding. This volume covers those who contributed to the fields of art and architecture, music, philosophy, religion, political and social thought, science, mathematics, literature, history, and education. With over 350 entries written by 72 scholars, the book provides a good basic resource on an exciting age.

This encyclopedia contains the biographies of over 100 women, from Clara Barton to Oprah Winfrey, who come from diverse backgrounds, races, age groups, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and geographic locations. From 1776 to the present, these women have initiated organizations; taken human, physical, and financial risk in these endeavors; and have had an economic impact locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. This, by definition, makes them entrepreneurs, the same as their male counterparts. However, many of the women have been unacknowledged by recorded history. This book, therefore, adds women's entrepreneurial stories to the historical record and provides a resource to researchers and educators in the fields of entrepreneurship, business, management, sociology, economics, and women's studies. It also will be of interest to young women--potential entrepreneurs--seeking role models for their own endeavors in the free enterprise system of the United States.

This directory includes over 500 African American performers and theater people who have made a significant contribution to the American stage from the early 19th century to the beginning of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Entries provide succinct biographical and theatrical information gathered from a variety of sources including library theater and drama collections, dissertations and theses, newspaper and magazine reviews and criticism, theater programs, theatrical memoirs, and earlier performing arts directories. Among the professional artists included in this volume are performers, librettists, lyricists, directors, producers, choreographers, stage managers, and musicians. The individuals profiled represent almost every major category and genre of the professional, semiprofessional, regional, and academic stage including minstrelsy, vaudeville, musical theater, and drama. Persons of historical significance are included as well as those stars and theatrical personalities that were well known during their time but who are relatively forgotten today.

This comprehensive volume will appeal to theater and musical theater, Black studies, and American studies scholars. Cross-referenced throughout, this reference also includes an extensive bibliography and appendices of other theater personalities excluded from the main text. Separate indexes list the personalities, teams and partnerships, and performing groups, organizations, and companies.

Women writers have been traditionally excluded from literary canons and not until recently have scholars begun to rediscover or discover for the first time neglected women writers and their works. This reference includes alphabetically arranged entries on 58 American women authors who wrote between 1900 and 1945. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and discusses a particular author's biography, her major works and themes, and the critical response to her writings. The entries close with extensive primary and secondary bibliographies, and the volume concludes with a list of works for further reading.

The period surveyed by this reference is rich and diverse. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, two major artistic movements, occurred between 1900 and 1945, and the entries included here demonstrate the significant contributions women made to these movements. The volume as a whole strives to reflect the diversity of American culture and includes entries for African American, Native American, Mexican American, and Chinese American women. It includes well known writers such as Willa Cather and Eudora Welty, along with more neglected ones such as Anita Scott Coleman and Sui Sin Far.

The last of four volumes comprising a biographical dictionary of state speakers from 1911 to 1994, this book covers Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont. Following an analytical introduction, the entries provide biographical and career information on all of the speakers in the Northeast. The volume concludes with statistical appendices based on an exhaustive data base.

The book complements volumes on the West, the Midwest, and the South. Together the volumes provide a useful source of information that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Women have made significant strides in the sports world over the past 30 years, one of which has been moving into the ranks of coaching on both the collegiate and professional levels. Readers will meet 42 of these outstanding women, contemporary coaches in the world of sports today, some of whom had to overcome major obstacles to get where they are today in this male-dominated profession. Entries, uniquely based on interviews with the coaches themselves, bring to life the commitment to excellence, hard work, and service which these women have portrayed in wide-ranging sports from basketball to soccer to lacrosse.

Each entry in this unique reference resource provides the following information: Personal Data, Formative Years, Sports History, Playing Career, Decision to Coach, Coaching, Philosophy of Coaching, Changes in Athletes, Memorable Moments, Role Models, Favorite Books and Authors, Hobbies, Favorite Movies, Future Plans, and Recognitions and Achievement, Photographs of the coaches round out the entries to provide complete portraits of these women and their successes.

Aside from a few famous queens, warriors and religious leaders, little information is available about the many extraordinary women of the medieval and Renaissance world. This resource brings together engagingly written biographical profiles of 70 women, most of whom are unsung, but all of whom are remarkable for their courage, initiative, and accomplishments in a world where the conventional wisdom was for women to be chaste, silent, and obedient. The women profiled here represent 18 countries and excelled in 19 fields of endeavor. They include artists, builders, mystics, political leaders, religious activists, diarists and dramatists, poets and writers, and scholars.

In a world where women were taught to prefer silence to speech and self-expression, and where an assertive woman was considered an abnormal one, these women did speak out and assert themselves. This often required the courage to refute the moral dictates of the time, to put themselves at risk for their beliefs, or to take political power for themselves. Some women succeeded and some were destroyed in their efforts. These profiles, prepared by specialists in women's history, are based on the latest scholarship and offer a wealth of information not available elsewhere. Each profile features biographical data, an engagingly written biographical essay that discusses the woman's life in the context of her society, and bibliographic sources for further research. This work makes the lives of these extraordinary women accessible to the wide audience of students and interested readers and is ideal for student research.

This volume provides comprehensive biographical information covering the leading names in all aspects of popular music. The appendices section provides contact details for the world's leading record companies, agents and managers, publishers, music events and organizations.

Contrasting the views of Native Americans and European Americans, this book provides a fresh look at the rhetoric behind the westward movement of the American frontier. From George Armstrong Custer and Andrew Jackson to Helen Hunt Jackson, the volume gives the views of well-known Anglo-Americans and contrasts them with views of such well-known Native Americans as Metacom, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, and Black Hawk. Organized around major subthemes regarding the land, who should own it, and what ownership means, the book traces the rhetoric of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, then covers current issues in the words of Oren Lyons, Vine Deloria Jr., and Senator Slade Gorton. The core of the debate in this volume is the taking of the continental United States from native peoples by European immigrants. In chapters revolving around major subthemes, the book develops biographies of significant figures in the history of a continent changing hands. What was George Armstrong Custer's view of Native American culture? How did this view contrast with that of his contemporary and antagonist at the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull? This book is the first to present and contract the views on both sides of the debate.

Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American society. This reference work celebrates the contributions of 166 distinguished Asian Americans. Most people profiled are not featured in any other biographical collection of noted Asian Americans. The Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Korean Americans, South Asian Americans (from India and Pakistan), and Southeast Asian Americans (from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) profiled in this work represent more than 75 fields of endeavor. From historical figures to figure skater Michelle Kwan, this work features both prominent and less familiar individuals who have made significant contributions in their fields. A number of the contemporary subjects have given exclusive interviews for this work.

All biographies have been written by experts in their ethnic fields. Those profiled range widely from distinguished scientists and Nobel Prize winners to sports stars, from actors to activists, from politicians to business leaders, from artists to literary luminaries. All are role models for young men and women, and many have overcome difficult odds to succeed. These colorfully written, substantive biographies detail their subjects' goals, struggles, and commitments to success and to their ethnic communities. More than 40 portraits accompany the biographies and each biography concludes with a list of suggested reading for further research. Appendices organizing the biographies by ethnic group and profession make searching easy. This is the most current biographical dictionary on Asian Americans and is ideal for student research.

The series of biographical sketches published by "Brainard's Musical World" between 1877 and 1889 is notable for the diversity of the musicians profiled and for the entertaining personal information provided. This period witnessed the establishment of musical institutions and attitudes toward music that have shaped American music to the present day. The biographies present a cross-section of American musicians in the late 19th century, including singers, instrumentalists, writers, teachers, and composers. Among the musicians included are some of America's most prominent conductors, such as Theodore Thomas and Leopold Damrosch; composers, such as John Knowles Paine and George F. Root; writers, such as John S. Dwight and Amy Fay; teachers, such as William Mason and Erminia Rudersdorff; and performers, such as Emma Abbott and Maud Powell. Scores of less familiar musicians who were also instrumental in shaping America's music are included as well. Originally intended for general readers, the biographical sketches not only shed light on musical topics but also include personal information that is seldom found in a traditional dictionary and which speaks to the attitudes and concerns of the late 19th century society.

This work will be of value to scholars and researchers of 19th-century American music and to those interested in the development of popular song. Entries are alphabetically arranged and include select bibliographies. A general bibliography and index are also included.

This book of biographical profiles and stories chronicles the astonishing courage and imagination of young people. The lives of the seventeen young men and women profiled here, who range in age from twelve to twenty-three at the time of their heroic deeds, spread across oceans and continents, cultures, races, and ethnic groups throughout 250 years. Each of their lives offers testimony to the human capacity to endure, overcome incredible obstacles, and choose honor, integrity, compassion, and service. The stories of many are told here for the first time.

Among the lives depicted here are those of Melba Pattillo Beals, one of the first African American students to attempt to integrate a formerly all-white high school in Little Rock in 1957; Vladimir Bukovsky, a teenager whose activities on behalf of the human rights movement in the Soviet Union landed him in prison; Marianne Cohn, who paid the ultimate price for her courage as a resistance fighter in World War II France; Charles Eastman, raised as a Sioux, who was thrust at age fourteen into an alien white world and who later returned to his people as a physician and saved many lives at Wounded Knee; Olaudah Equino, a West African sold into slavery in the eighteenth century whose autobiography offers an unflinching portrayal of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade; and Chai Ling, a slip of a girl who assumed leadership of the student rebellion in China's Tiananmen Square. The heroes profiled in this book represent ten nations-Africa, China, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Pakistan, Soviet Union, Thailand, and the United States. Each profile concludes with a bibliography for further reading. These engagingly written stories of young people's courage will inspire and instruct.

This book is a collection of articles, in both English and Romanian, written by Romanian and American scholars, on subjects relating to biography and Romanian studies. These papers were presented at the Third International Conference of the Center for Romanian Studies held in Iasi, Ramania July9th - July 10th 1997. Contributors include: Adam J. Sorkin, Ingeborg M. Kohn, Dumitru Dorobat, Koan Saizu, Milai Drecin, Demetrius Dvoichenko de Markov, Diana Foetescu, Dumitru Preda, Constantin Hlihor, and many others.

Volume two of a ten-volume set, this dictionary contains around 250 entries on individuals who shaped their times, and left their mark on medieval history. Each entry provides an essay on the life and career of the individual concerned. The body of each entry is divided into three parts: early life - which provides facts about the individual's upbringing and the environment in which they were reared; life's work - which provides an account of the period during which the individual's most significant achievements were made; and a summary which overviews the subject's place in history.

The first biographical dictionary in any Western language devoted solely to Chinese women, this reference is the product of years of research, translation, and writing by a team of over 60 China scholars from around the world. Compiled from a wide array of original sources, these detailed biographies present the lives, work, and significance of more than 200 Chinese women from many different backgrounds and areas of interest.

Jesters and fools have existed as important and consistent figures in nearly all cultures. Sometimes referred to as clowns, they are typological characters who have conventional roles in the arts, often using nonsense to subvert existing order. But fools are also a part of social and religious history, and they frequently play key roles in the rituals that support and shape a society's system of beliefs. This reference book includes alphabetically arranged entries for approximately 60 fools and jesters from a wide range of cultures. Included are entries for performers from American popular culture, such as Woody Allen, Mae West, Charlie Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers; literary characters, such as Shakespeare's Falstaff, Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel, and Singer's Gimpel; and cultural and mythological figures, such as India's Birbal, the American circus clown, the Native American Coyote, Taishu Engeki of Japan, Hephaestus, Loki the Norse fool, schlimiels and schlimazels, and the drag queen. The entries, written by expert contributors, are critical as well as informative. Each begins with a biographical, artistic, religious, or historical background section, which places the subject within a larger cultural and historical context. A description and analysis follow. This section may include a discussion of the fool's appearance, gender role, ethical and moral roles, social function, and relationship to such themes as nature, time, and mortality. The entry then discusses the critical reception of the subject and concludes with an extensive bibliography of general works.

This user-friendly reference dictionary provides a quick guide to those who have governed Mexico from 1325 to 1997. It covers all rulers from the Aztec Empire to the current president, Ernesto Zedillo. The book provides an objective portrait of the political leadership and describes the circumstances surrounding major events. Arranged chronologically, with a glossary, appendixes, and name index, the book includes four main chapters--The Aztec Empire, The Conquest and Viceroyalty, From Independence to the Diaz Dictatorship, and Revolution and Modern Mexico. Each chapter opens with a brief characterization of the period. A practical guide to Mexico's long and complicated history, this book contains short biographical entries on each of the country's 185 rulers. Entries describe the main accomplishments and failures of each tenure. The book also includes an appendix describing Mexico's main plans, treaties, conspiracies, and constitutions.

Recognized scholars from 15 countries offer rich political analyses of 71 European leaders chosen for the significant roles that they have played nationally, regionally, or internationally since 1945. Each in-depth political and intellectual biography assesses the leader's achievements and failures in historical context, key career moments, major allies and opponents and their impact, and the leader's interplay with different political institutions. The profiles cover representative types of political leaders across the political spectrum from left to right, heads of state and chiefs of government, and political figures that have been important in European history over the last 50 years. Leaders describe important political moments in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The essays arranged alphabetically also give a few primary and secondary sources for further research. A short chronology and bibliographical essay on the subject of European political leadership and a full index further enhance this major reference designed for undergraduates and graduate students and for scholars, government officials, and journalists in political affairs, European studies, world history, and international relations.

Biography is an endlessly fascinating subject for a wide variety of readers. The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography is the most up-to-date and comprehensive, single-volume, biographical reference of living and dead Americans available. The book contains 9,000 entries written for general readers in fluid narrative style. Each entry is self-contained and does not assume any historic or geographic knowledge. What sets this book apart is its breadth of coverage--living and dead, famous and forgotten American figures, of diverse careers, from colonial times to the present day--and its attention to women and minority groups. The Dictionary has been originally compiled--not derived from older work--with the help of over one-hundred consultants. It also contains two exceptionally useful indexes: one by occupation and the other by names mentioned in the entries (whether or not they are entries themselves). The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography is written for anyone interested in owning an eminently readable reference to living contemporaries and their achievements as well as to historically important figures. John Bowman, an accomplished author and editor, has been assisted by an editoral board of distinguished American scholars.

This important reference tool surveys the multifaceted field of peace activism from 1800 to 1980. The dictionary defines the parameters of peace advocacy, surveys the different approaches taken in antiwar efforts, and provides information on many individuals who have either contributed to organized peace efforts or who have questioned war and organized violence. More than 250 authors from 15 nations have written 750 biographical entries about public advocates of peace; antiwar activists; leaders in organizations devoted to world peace; those who have worked to prevent armed conflicts; and writers, artists, and many others who have played major roles in the cause of peace. Although many of the subjects come from the United States and Europe, important subjects from Canada, Latin America, Africa, East Asia, and South Asia are also represented. Besides providing basic biographical information, each entry concentrates on the subject's work, ideas, and activity as a peace leader and also contains a short bibliography of works about the subject, works by the subject, and manuscript materials if available. Carefully indexed and cross-referenced, the volume contains an introductory overview of nineteenth- and twentieth-century peace efforts, gives a selective chronology of peace movements, and provides an appendix listing the peace leaders by country. No other volume provides such a comprehensive survey of peace leaders throughout the world as this one. The Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable research and reference tool for scholars and students of international relations, international law, and political philosophy.

"Recommended for collections strong in the area of biographical reference." Library Journal

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