Perry, William James, 1927-, U.S. government official, b. Vandergrift, Pa. A Ph.D. in mathematics, former Stanford engineering professor, and founder of a military electronics firm, he served (1977-81) as defense undersecretary for research and development during the Carter administration. Appointed deputy defense secretary by President Bill Clinton in 1993, he became defense secretary in 1994. In office, he favored the "force multiplier" philosophy of military action, holding that high-technology weaponry can overcome superior numbers on the battlefield. He retired from defense department in 1997 and returned to a professorship at Stanford. For the remainder of the Clinton administration, Perry performed brief diplomatic missions for the government, and in 1999 he acted as U.S. policy coordinator for North Korea and visited that nation. In 2006 he served as a member of the Iraq Study Group.

McGill, William James, 1922-97, American educator and psychologist, b. New York City, grad. Fordham (A.B., 1943) and Harvard (Ph.D., 1953). A specialist in psychophysics and mathematical psychology, he was professor of psychology at Columbia (1956-65) and at the Univ. of California at San Diego (1965-68). He was UCSD chancellor from 1968 to 1970, during a period of student unrest, then returned to Columbia as its president (1970-80).

Linton, William James, 1812-97, Anglo-American wood engraver, author, and political reformer. In 1842 he began working as a wood engraver with John Orrin Smith and produced illustrations for the newly formed London Illustrated News. An ardent radical, he helped found the Leader, expounded the principles of Mazzini in the Red Republican, and started (1851) the English Republic. Later, he returned to wood engraving and in 1867 moved to the United States and set up a printing press in New Haven, Conn.; he continued the tradition of Thomas Bewick, advocating the use of the white as well as the black line. The best wood engraver of his day in England, he contributed more than any other to the regeneration of the art in America. His publications include The Life of Thomas Paine (1839), Some Practical Hints on Wood-Engraving (1879), The History of Wood-Engraving in America (1882), and Memories (1895).

Glackens, William James, 1870-1938, American landscape and genre painter and illustrator, b. Philadelphia. An illustrator for Philadelphia and New York City newspapers and magazines for many years, Glackens first exhibited his paintings with the Eight and achieved fame as a brilliant painter of the contemporary scene. In his early works he used a dark palette. After staying in Paris, he adapted the technique of the French impressionist school and turned to a brighter range of colors. He was particularly influenced by Renoir. Parade, Washington Square (Whitney Mus., New York City), and Nude with Apple (Brooklyn Mus., New York) are characteristic of his later work. He is well represented in the Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa., and other leading American collections.

Durant, William James, 1885-1981, American historian and essayist, b. North Adams, Mass. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1917 and published his doctoral dissertation, Philosophy and the Social Problem, in the same year. This was followed by The Story of Philosophy (1926), an immediate best seller that opened the way for a school of popularized history. Durant then embarked upon a life-long project, the writing of a comprehensive history of civilization. The Story of Civilization (11 vol., 1935-75; vol. 7-11 written with his wife, Ariel Durant) is a monumental work stretching from prehistory to the 19th cent.

(born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn.) U.S. painter. He worked as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia and later in New York City. In 1891 he met Robert Henri, and he subsequently became a member of The Eight and the Ash Can school. He favoured colourful street scenes of urban middle-class life, heavily influenced by Impressionism. He was a prolific draftsman, and his drawings (e.g., Seated Woman, 1902) reveal an elegant style not seen in his paintings. In 1912 he traveled to Europe to buy paintings for the collection of Albert C. Barnes. In 1913 he helped organize and exhibited in the Armory Show.

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(born Jan. 11, 1842, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 26, 1910, Chocorua, N.H.) U.S. philosopher and psychologist. Son of the philosophical writer Henry James (1811–82) and brother of the novelist Henry James, he studied medicine at Harvard, where he taught from 1872. His first major work, The Principles of Psychology (1890), treated thinking and knowledge as instruments in the struggle to live. His most famous work is The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). In Pragmatism (1907), he generalized the theories of Charles Sanders Peirce to assert that the meaning of any idea must be analyzed in terms of the succession of experiential consequences to which it leads and that truth and error depend solely on these consequences (see pragmatism). He applied this doctrine to the analysis of change and chance, freedom, variety, pluralism, and novelty. His pragmatism was also the basis for his polemic against monism, the idealistic doctrine of internal relations, and all views that presented reality as a static whole. He was also a leader of the psychological movement known as functionalism.

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(born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn.) U.S. painter. He worked as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia and later in New York City. In 1891 he met Robert Henri, and he subsequently became a member of The Eight and the Ash Can school. He favoured colourful street scenes of urban middle-class life, heavily influenced by Impressionism. He was a prolific draftsman, and his drawings (e.g., Seated Woman, 1902) reveal an elegant style not seen in his paintings. In 1912 he traveled to Europe to buy paintings for the collection of Albert C. Barnes. In 1913 he helped organize and exhibited in the Armory Show.

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