Westermarck, Edward Alexander, 1862-1939, Finnish social philosopher and anthropologist. He was professor of sociology at the Univ. of London (1907-30) and professor of philosophy at the Åbo Akademi (until 1935). Westermarck was an authority on the history of morals and of marriage customs, his best-known work being
The History of Human Marriage, written in English (1891; 5th ed., 3 vol., 1921). On it he based
A Short History of Marriage (1926). He wrote several books on Moroccan customs. Other books (all in English) include
The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (2 vol., 1906-8; 2d ed. 1912-17),
Ethical Relativity (1932),
The Future of Marriage in Western Civilization (1936), and
Christianity and Morals (1939).
See his autobiography (tr. 1929).
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Werner, Anton Alexander von, 1843-1915, German historical painter, portraitist, and illustrator. He was director (1875-1915) of the Berlin Academy. In the Franco-Prussian War he accompanied the 3d Army Corps in an unofficial capacity as painter. Of this period are his portrait of von Moltke, In Quarters before Paris and Episode of War. His best-known illustrations are those for Scheffel's poems.
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Wekerle, Alexander, 1848-1921, Hungarian premier. He became minister of finance in 1889 and retained that post during his first two terms as premier (1892-95, 1906-10). In his first term civil marriage was made obligatory, and the power of the church was lessened as a result. His second cabinet was a coalition of parties; it carried out financial reforms and supported the annexation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Werkerle headed four successive cabinets in 1917-18. On Oct. 16, 1918, he declared the dissolution of all bonds between Hungary and Austria except the personal union of the two countries under the same monarch. He resigned shortly afterward.
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Vaida-Voevod, Alexander, 1871-1950, Romanian statesman, b. Transylvania. He was (1906-18) a member of the Hungarian parliament, in which he advocated the cause of the Romanians in Transylvania. In 1918, on the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, he led in proclaiming the union of Transylvania with Romania, and in 1919 he was made premier and foreign minister of Romania. He secured recognition of the incorporation of Transylvania and Bessarabia into Romania, although Russia refused to concede the loss of Bessarabia, and he had Romanian troops intervene in Hungary to oust the Communist regime of Bela
Kun. He resigned in 1920 but was later premier in 1932 and 1933 at the head of the National Peasants' party. Withdrawing from that party, he associated with the reactionary, pro-German, and anti-Semitic elements in Romanian politics and set up in 1935 the right-wing Romanian Front.
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Tsankov, Alexander, 1879-1959, Bulgarian politician. A professor of political economy at the Univ. of Sofia, he was instrumental in the overthrow (1923) of the dictatorship of Alexander
Stambuliski. As premier (1923-26), he mercilessly fought members of the Peasants' and Communist parties, and his administration's relations with Greece and Yugoslavia were strained. After his government fell, Tsankov remained active in right-wing politics and favored the Nazis. In 1944 he fled Bulgaria. He died in Buenos Aires. His name is also spelled Tsankoff, Zankoff, or Zankov.
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Stuart or Stewart, Alexander, earl of Buchan, 1343?-1405?, Scottish nobleman; fourth son of Robert II. He held various offices under the crown and was made lord of Badenoch in 1371 and earl of Buchan in 1382. In 1389 he was censured by the church for repudiating his wife. In his rage against the bishops he burned the town of Forres and the cathedral at Elgin (1390). For this violence he was excommunicated (but later absolved) and popularly called the Wolf of Badenoch.
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Stuart or Stewart, Alexander, duke of Albany, 1454?-1485, Scottish nobleman; second son of James II of Scotland. He was captured (1463) by the English while he was at sea en route to the Low Countries but was soon released. He became high admiral of Scotland, warden of the marches, and lieutenant of the kingdom. In 1479, however, his brother
James III, suspecting Albany of plotting against the throne, had him imprisoned. Albany escaped to France and thence went to England, where he concluded (1481) a treaty with Edward IV, by which the English king agreed to recognize Albany as king of Scotland if the latter became his vassal. An English army invaded Scotland (1482), but Albany was persuaded by some of the Scottish nobles to renounce his pretensions to the throne in return for the restoration of his estates. He was briefly reconciled with James, but in 1483 he was sentenced to death and fled to England. After raiding Scotland in 1484, he went to France, where he was accidentally killed in a tournament.
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Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron, 1820-1914, Canadian fur trader, financier, and railroad builder, b. Scotland. Coming to Canada in 1838, he was hired by the Hudson's Bay Company, of which he later was governor (1889-1914). Smith's skill in finance was early apparent. He came into public notice in 1869 when he was sent by the government to deal with Louis
Riel, leader of the Red River Rebellion. From 1871 to 1880 and from 1887 to 1896 Smith sat in the dominion Parliament. His break with John Macdonald at the height of the
Pacific scandal (1873) was in part responsible for the downfall of Macdonald's administration. With associates he gained control of the Great Northern lines in 1878 and later was a leading force in the company that completed (1885) the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1886 he was knighted, and while serving (1896-1914) as Canadian high commissioner in England he was created baron (1897). Out of the great fortune that he amassed, he gave large sums to charitable and educational enterprises. A highly controversial figure, Strathcona was characterized by his enemies as a conniving self-seeker and by his admirers as a vigorous empire builder.
See biography by J. Macnaughton (1926).
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Stirling, William Alexander, earl of, 1567?-1640, Scottish poet. He was tutor of Prince Henry of Scotland and went to England on the accession of James I. The holder of various government offices, he was made Viscount Stirling in 1630 and earl of Stirling in 1633. His work includes
Aurora (1604), love sonnets;
An Encouragement to Colonies (1624); and
Four Monarchicke Tragedies (1664-67), on Croesus, Darius, Alexander, and Julius Caesar.
See his poetical works (ed. by L. E. Kastner and H. B. Charlton, 1921-29).
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Stewart, Alexander Turney, 1803-76, American merchant, b. Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Ireland. Arriving in New York c.1820, he started in business in 1823 by selling Irish laces. In 1846 he established a wholesale and retail dry-goods business, which, by 1850, was the largest in the city; his new store (later sold to John
Wanamaker), opened in 1862, was the largest retail store in the world. Owner of hotels and other enterprises in New York City, he maintained a controlling interest in mills in New England, New York, and New Jersey and built the planned community of Garden City, Long Island. He was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 but was prevented by law from taking office because of his business connections. His mansion on Fifth Ave. was regarded as one of the finest in America.
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Stephens, Alexander Hamilton, 1812-83, American political leader, Confederate vice president (1861-65), b. Taliaferro co. (then part of Wilkes co.), Ga. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, served six terms in the Georgia legislature, and was a Whig (later a Democratic) Representative in Congress from 1843 to 1859. Stephens, together with Howell Cobb and Robert Toombs, was influential in Georgia's acceptance of the Compromise of 1850, and with them he organized in the state the short-lived Constitutional Union party. He voted against secession in the Georgia convention of 1861, but accepted his state's decision and was a delegate to the convention in Montgomery, where the Confederacy was born. As vice president, Stephens consistently opposed the policies of Jefferson
Davis, objecting notably to conscription and to suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. An early advocate of peace, he was one of three Confederate commissioners to the
Hampton Roads Peace Conference. After the Civil War, Stephens was arrested and interned for several months in Fort Warren, Boston. After his release, he was elected (1866) to the U.S. Senate but was not allowed to take his seat. He then applied himself to the writing of
Constitutional View of the Late War between the States (2 vol., 1868-70), considered the ablest defense of the right of secession. He served again in Congress from 1873 to 1882, when he was elected governor of Georgia.
See biographies by R. von Abele (1946, repr. 1971) and T. E. Schott (1988).
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Stambuliski, Alexander, Bulgarian
Aleksandr Stamboliski, 1879-1923, Bulgarian politician. He was a leader of the Peasants' party and by 1911 had become head of the opposition to Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. He was jailed (1915-18) for opposing the entry of Bulgaria into World War I on the side of the Central Powers. When he was released he proclaimed a republic, but the movement was defeated. After Ferdinand's deposition and the accession of Boris III, Stambuliski became premier (1919) and virtual dictator (1920). Supported by his peasant Orange Guard, he used his powers to carry out agrarian reforms and founded the Green Peasant International. He sought to carry out the provisions of the Treaty of Neuilly, which he had helped to negotiate in 1919. In 1923 a coup, supported by army officers and Macedonian nationalists led by Alexander
Tsankov, overthrew his government, and Stambuliski was killed.
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Spotswood, Alexander, 1676-1740, colonial governor of Virginia, b. Tangier, Morocco. Appointed in 1710, he was officially lieutenant governor under the nominal governorship of George Hamilton, 1st earl of Orkney. One of the ablest of the royal governors, Spotswood encouraged settlement of the frontier by exempting the settlers from taxes and quitrents. His measures requiring the inspection of all tobacco intended for export or for use as legal tender (1713) and regulating trade with the Native Americans (1714) were unpopular, and upon petition by the assembly, the crown repealed them (1717). He also encountered difficulties in maintaining his right to appoint Anglican clergymen in the colony. In 1716, Spotswood led an expedition into the Shenandoah valley to hasten its settlement, and he negotiated a treaty (1722) with the Iroquois, by which they agreed to remain beyond the Potomac River and the Blue Ridge. At the end (1722) of his governorship, Spotswood remained in Virginia, having acquired a vast amount of land in Spotsylvania co., where he also had extensive iron interests. In 1730 he was made deputy postmaster general of the American colonies.
See his Official Letters (ed. by R. A. Brock, 2 vol., 1882-85); biographies by W. Havighurst (1968) and L. Dodson (1932, repr. 1969).
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Simon, Herbert Alexander, 1916-2001, American social scientist and economist, b. Milwaukee, grad. Univ. of Chicago (B.A., 1936, Ph.D., 1943). A professor of computer science and psychology at Carnegie-Mellon Univ. from 1949 until his death, Simon was a pioneer of the development of computer
artificial intelligence. In economics, he contended that the theory of "economic man," which argues that the individual invariably chooses a course that will maximize personal benefits, failed to account for the inherent uncertainty of human action. His highly original work on decision-making in such books as
Administrative Behavior (1947, 4th ed. 1997), in which he argued that business executives often fail to maximize profits because they make decisions without assessing all information and long-term effects, earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1978. Simon's other books include
Scientific Discovery (1987).
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Severus, Alexander: see
Alexander Severus.
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Selkirk, Alexander, 1676-1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of
Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with the captain of his ship in the
Juan Fernández islands and asked to be put ashore. He remained on Más a Tierra Island for four years and four months before he was rescued (Feb., 1709) by an English privateer.
See J. Howell, The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk (1829).
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Scott, Thomas Alexander, 1823-81, American railroad president, b. Fort Loudon, Pa. He was employed by the Pennsylvania RR as a station agent in 1850 and rose to become general superintendent (1858) and first vice president (1860). His efficiency in transporting Pennsylvania troops at the beginning of the Civil War won him a lieutenant colonelcy of volunteers, and from Aug., 1861, to June, 1862, he was Assistant Secretary of War (an office newly created by Congress) in charge of all government railroads and transportation lines. Later, at various times, he advised the government on the operation of its railroads. After the war he was active in promoting the enormous expansion of the Pennsylvania system, of which he was president (1874-80). His interest in a southern transcontinental railroad route deeply involved him in politics; Scott was instrumental in obtaining the southern support that made Rutherford B.
Hayes president after the disputed election of 1876. He was also president of the Union Pacific (1871-72) and of the Texas Pacific (1872-80).
See S. R. Kamm, The Civil War Career of Thomas A. Scott (1940).
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Schumann, Robert Alexander, 1810-56, German composer. Both as a composer and as a highly articulate music critic he was a leader of the romantic movement. He studied theory with Heinrich Dorn and piano with Friedrich Wieck, whose daughter Clara he married. Forced by a hand injury to abandon a career as a pianist, he served as editor of the
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik from its inception in 1834 until 1844. In his articles he championed younger composers, particularly Chopin and Brahms. Schumann's brilliant compositions for piano, including
Papillons, Die Davidsbündlertänze, Carnaval, Fantasiestücke, Études symphoniques, Kinderszenen, and
Kreisleriana, occupied him until 1840, when he began to write songs and orchestral music. In his lieder he set to music lyrics by such poets as Heine, Goethe, Eichendorff, and Kerner, achieving a superb fusion of vocal melody and piano accompaniment. Among his best song cycles are
Frauenliebe und -Leben [
Woman's Love and Life, on verses by Chamisso] and
Dichterliebe [
Poet's Love, verses by Heine]. His
Spring Symphony (1841), Piano Concerto in A Minor (1846), and Third, or
Rhenish, Symphony (1850) are his outstanding orchestral works. They exemplify his infusion of classical forms with intense, personal emotion. His one opera,
Genoveva (1847-48), was unsuccessful. After a nervous breakdown, he entered (1854) a sanitarium, where he died two years later.
His wife, Clara Josephine (Wieck) Schumann, 1819-96, was one of the outstanding pianists of her time. After bitter opposition from her father she married Schumann in 1840 and eventually bore him eight children. She made her debut in 1836 and later performed with great success on the Continent, in England, and in Russia. She was noted for the intellectual brilliance and sensitivity of her playing, and was an outstanding interpreter of Schumann's and Brahms's works. Her own compositions were mainly piano pieces and songs. From 1878 to 1892 she taught at the Frankfurt Conservatory.
See his essays, On Music and Musicians (1946); his letters, tr. by M. Herbert (1888, repr. 1970); biographies by J. Chissell (1967) and H. Bedford (1933, repr. 1971); studies by T. A. Brown (1968), S. Walsh (1972), A. Walker, ed. (1974), and J. W. Finson (1989).
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Runcie, Robert Alexander Kennedy, 1921-2000, archbishop of Canterbury (1980-91). Bishop of St. Albans from 1970 to 1980, he was enthroned as the 102d archbishop of Canterbury in 1980, succeeding Donald Coggan. Runcie supported the ordination of women and other liberal Anglican positions and was often a critic of Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher's Conservative government. He also was noted for developing links with the Orthodox Eastern churches and the Roman Catholic Church and for his work on behalf of the Anglican ministry in Africa. Runcie was created a life peer in 1991.
See biographies by A. Hastings (1991) and H. Carpenter (1996).
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Ross, Alexander, 1783-1856, Canadian fur trader and pioneer, b. Scotland. He went to Canada in 1805, taught school in Upper Canada, and in 1810 left for Oregon as a clerk in John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. In the founding (1811) of Astoria, Ross played a part. When that fur-trading post was sold (1813) to the North West Company, he entered their employ and was a member of the expedition that established (1818) Fort Nez Percé (also called Fort Walla Walla); he was in charge of this post until 1823, two years after the amalgamation (1821) of the North West Company with Hudson's Bay Company. His account of these years on the Pacific slope is related in his Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River (1849, new ed. 1923) and The Fur-Hunters of the Far West (1855, new ed. 1956). He was head of an expedition (1823-24) in the Snake River country. In 1825 Ross settled in the Red River district; in Assiniboia he was sheriff and a member of the council. His Red River Settlement was published in 1856.
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Ritchie, Alexander Hay, 1822-95, American engraver and painter, b. Scotland. He came to the United States in 1841 and a few years later established a successful workshop in New York City. His engravings, mezzotints, and etchings were chiefly of historical or allegorical subjects, often very ambitious in scale. Washington and His Generals, after his own painting, is representative of his work.
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Reed, James Alexander, 1861-1944, American political leader, b. near Mansfield, Ohio. He moved to Iowa and was admitted (1885) to the bar, practicing there and later in Missouri. He was (1898-1900) an extremely successful prosecuting attorney of Jackson co., Mo., and then served (1900-1904) as mayor of Kansas City, Mo. As Democratic senator (1911-29) from Missouri, he adamantly opposed national prohibition and U.S. participation in the League of Nations. In 1928 he was a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, but lost it to Alfred E.
Smith.
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Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744, English poet. Although his literary reputation declined somewhat during the 19th cent., he is now recognized as the greatest poet of the 18th cent. and the greatest verse satirist in English.
Life
Pope was born in London of Roman Catholic parents and moved to Binfield in 1700. During his later childhood he was afflicted by a tubercular condition known as Pott's disease that ruined his health and produced a pronounced spinal curvature. He never grew taller than 4 ft 6 in. (1.4 m). His religion debarred him from a Protestant education and from the age of 12 he was almost entirely self-taught.
Although he is known for his literary quarrels, Pope never lacked close friends. In his early years he won the attention of William Wycherley and the poet-critic William Walsh, among others. Before he was 17 Pope was admitted to London society and encouraged as a prodigy. The shortest lived of his friendships was with Joseph Addison and his coterie, who eventually insidiously attacked Pope's Tory leanings. His attachment to the Tory party was strengthened by his warm friendship with Swift and his involvement with the Scriblerus Club.
Works
Pope's poetry basically falls into three periods. The first includes the early descriptive poetry; the Pastorals (1709); Windsor Forest (1713); the Essay on Criticism (1711), a poem written in heroic couplets outlining critical tastes and standards; The Rape of the Lock (1714), a mock-heroic poem ridiculing the fashionable world of his day; contributions to the Guardian; and "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" and "Eloise to Abelard," the only pieces he ever wrote dealing with love. In about 1717 Pope formed attachments to Martha Blount, a relationship that lasted his entire life, and to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, with whom he later quarreled bitterly.
Pope's second period includes his magnificent, if somewhat inaccurate, translations of Homer, written in heroic couplets; the completed edition of the Iliad (1720); and the Odyssey (1725-26), written with William Broome and Elijah Fenton. These translations, along with Pope's unsatisfactory edition of Shakespeare (1725), amassed him a large fortune. In 1719 he bought a lease on a house in Twickenham where he and his mother lived for the rest of their lives.
In the last period of his career Pope turned to writing satires and moral poems. These include The Dunciad (1728-43), a scathing satire on dunces and literary hacks in which Pope viciously attacked his enemies, including Lewis Theobald, the critic who had ridiculed Pope's edition of Shakespeare, and the playwright Colley Cibber; Imitations of Horace (1733-38), satirizing social follies and political corruption; An Essay on Man (1734), a poetic summary of current philosophical speculation, his most ambitious work; Moral Essays (1731-35); and the "Epistle to Arbuthnot" (1735), a defense in poetry of his life and his work.
Bibliography
See the Twickenham edition of his poems (7 vol., 1951-61); his prose works ed. by N. Ault (1936, repr. 1968); his letters ed. by G. Sherburn (5 vol., 1956); biographies by G. Sherburn (1934, repr. 1963), N. Ault (1949, repr. 1967), P. Quennell (1968), and M. Maynard (1988); studies by G. Tillotson (1946; 2d ed. 1950; and 1958), F. W. Bateson and N. A. Joukovsky, ed. (1972), J. P. Russo (1972), P. Dixon, ed. (1973), F. M. Keener (1974), D. B. Morris (1984), L. Damrosch, Jr. (1987), and R. A. Brower (1986).
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Papagos, Alexander, 1883-1955, Greek soldier and political leader. Commissioned an officer in the Greek army in 1906, he rose rapidly through the ranks. In 1935 he became minister of war, and the following year he was made army chief of staff. He was commander in chief of the Greek army in World War II and gained great prestige, particularly for the Albanian campaign. Later he directed (1949) the successful struggle against the Communist rebels, and by 1950 he had become field marshal and head of the armed forces. He resigned in May, 1950, and shortly afterward formed the conservative Greek Rally party. In 1952 he became prime minister, serving until his death in Oct., 1955. He strengthened Greek ties with the West and developed the country's economy. He concluded the 1954 alliance with Yugoslavia and Turkey and improved Greek relations with Bulgaria and Albania.
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Palmer, Alexander Mitchell, 1872-1936, American politician, b. Moosehead, Pa. Admitted (1893) to the bar, he built up a large law practice, became a leader in the state Democratic party, and served (1909-15) in Congress. In 1912, Palmer helped swing the Democratic convention to nominate Woodrow Wilson for President. He was appointed (1913) judge of the U.S. Court of Claims and then (1917) alien-property custodian. As U.S. Attorney General (1919-21), he initiated the notorious "Palmer Raids," in which some 3,000 allegedly subversive aliens were rounded up for deportation. Ultimately only a few hundred were deported; the vast majority were released.
See R. K. Murray, Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920 (1955); S. Coben, A. Mitchell Palmer: Politician (1963, repr. 1972).
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Newlands, John Alexander Reina, 1838-98, British chemist. He studied at the Royal College of Chemistry in London and worked as an industrial chemist. Newlands prepared the first
periodic table of elements arranged in the order of atomic weights and pointed out the "Law of Octaves," i.e., that every eighth element has similar properties. His idea was ridiculed by his colleagues but was vindicated five years later when the Russian chemist D. I.
Mendeleev published a more developed form of the table.
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Neill, Alexander Sutherland, 1883-1973, English educator. After teaching at state schools in Scotland, Neill became dissatisfied with traditional education. In 1924, he set up the progressive coeducational Summerhill School at Leiston, England. Among the school's experiments were optional attendance, a school parliament, and no religious instruction. Neill's works include The Problem Child (1927), The Problem Family (1949), and Summerhill (1960). He ideas, although controversial, continue to be debated.
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Nasmyth, Alexander, 1758-1840, Scottish landscape and portrait painter. His Stirling Castle (National Gall., London) is a good example of his simple, picturesque Scottish scenes. His portrait of Robert Burns is in the National Gallery of Edinburgh. His son and pupil, Patrick Nasmyth, 1787-1831, was a celebrated landscapist. His At Penshurst, Kent is in the Metropolitan Museum.
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Müller, Karl Alexander, 1927-, Swiss physicist, Ph.D. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, 1958. In 1983, Müller and co-researcher Johannes Georg
Bednorz discovered superconductivity in a ceramic fragment at temperatures much higher than had been previously thought possible. Their discovery made possible applications in power lines, generators, and computers. In 1987, Bednorz and Müller were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Murray, Alexander Stuart, 1841-1904, Scottish archaeologist. He was assistant keeper (1867-86) and keeper (from 1886) of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum. From 1894 to 1896 he was in charge of excavations in Cyprus. Among his writings are Manual of Mythology (1873, rev. ed. 1935), Handbook of Greek Archaeology (1892), Terra-Cotta Sarcophagi (1898), and Excavations in Cyprus (1900).
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Muir, Alexander, 1830-1906, Canadian songwriter, b. Scotland. In 1867 he wrote the words and music for "The Maple Leaf Forever," which is regarded by many as the national hymn of Canada.
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Mudd, Samuel Alexander, 1833-83, Maryland physician and Confederate sympathizer who on April 15, 1865, set the broken left leg of Lincoln's fleeing assassin, John Wilkes
Booth. Mudd was accused of aiding Booth's escape and was tried along with Booth's accomplices (see
Surratt, Mary Eugenia). He maintained that he did not recognized the disguised Booth, who was an acquaintance, and did not know of Lincoln's assassination, but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, Fla. Since Mudd had nothing to do with the assassination and since Edward Spangler, the sceneshifter at Ford's Theater convicted of abetting Booth's escape, received a six-year sentence, Mudd's sentence was unjust. In 1869 he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson, who cited doubts about Mudd's guilt as well as his efforts during a yellow fever outbreak at the prison.
See The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd (ed. by his daughter, N. Mudd, 1906).
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Montgomerie, Alexander, c.1556-c.1610, Scottish poet. His principal poem, The Cherry and the Sloe (1597), is a pedestrian and ambiguous allegory that enjoyed considerable popularity in its time. Montgomerie's other work includes a verse polemic against Home of Polwarth, 70 sonnets, and miscellaneous poems.
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Meiklejohn, Alexander, 1872-1964, American educator, b. Rochdale, England, grad. Brown Univ., 1893, Ph.D. Cornell Univ., 1897. He taught philosophy at Brown (1897-1912), serving as dean after 1901 and, after 1906, as professor of logic. From 1912 to 1924 he was president of Amherst College. Meikeljohn was professor of philosophy at the Univ. of Wisconsin from 1926 to 1938 and was chairman of the Experimental College for the five years of its existence (1927-32). This experiment, in which a period of Greek civilization was studied intensively, inspired similar programs in other colleges, e.g., St. John's College. From 1933 to 1936 he taught at the Social Studies Center in San Francisco. Meiklejohn's educational theories are set forth in The Liberal College (1920), Freedom and the College (1923), and The Experimental College (1932). He also wrote What Does America Mean? (1935), Education between Two Worlds (1942), Free Speech and Its Relation to Self-Government (1948), and Political Freedom (1960, repr. 1965).
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McGillivray, Alexander, 1759-93, Native American chief. He was born in the Creek country now within the borders of the state of Alabama, the son of Lachlan McGillivray, a Scots trader, and Sehoy Marchand, his French-Creek wife. Given a classical education at Charleston, S.C., he returned to his mother's people at the beginning of the American Revolution when Georgia confiscated the property of his Loyalist father, who thereupon returned to Scotland. In the war he was a British agent, influential in maintaining Creek loyalty to the crown. At Pensacola in 1784, McGillivray, now dominant in his nation's councils, concluded with the Spanish a treaty confirming the Creek in their lands, giving the Spanish a trade monopoly, and making him Spanish commissary. With arms provided by the Spanish, his warriors periodically attacked American frontier settlements from Georgia to the Cumberland River. In 1790, President Washington, seeking to end the depredations, invited him to a conference in New York City. McGillivray, an intelligent diplomat, accepted, meanwhile assuring Spanish authorities of his loyalty, and was well received. By the Treaty of New York (1790), the Creek acknowledged U.S. sovereignty over part of their territory, acquired lands claimed by Georgia, and agreed to keep the peace. McGillivray himself accepted a brigadier generalcy and a yearly pension. He continued in the pay of the Spanish, however; in 1792 when they increased his subsidy, he entered upon another treaty with them that practically repudiated his treaty with the Americans, and the Native American attacks were resumed.
See J. W. Caughey, McGillivray of the Creeks (1938).
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McDougall, Alexander, 1731-86, American Revolutionary political leader and general, b. Islay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. He was taken (1738) as a child to New York. He became a fiery opponent of British restrictions on trade and helped to form the
Sons of Liberty in New York City. In 1770 he was arrested on the charge of having written a seditious broadside. In 1774 he presided over the meeting that decided to send New York delegates to the Continental Congress. He served in the army throughout the Revolution and was notable in the battles of White Plains and Germantown and in the fighting in New Jersey. In 1780, after Benedict Arnold's treason, McDougall succeeded to the charge of West Point. After the war he was (1781-82, 1784-85) a member of Congress from New York.
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McClure, Alexander Kelly, 1828-1909, American journalist and political leader, b. Perry co., Pa. He edited and published the
Juniata Sentinel of Mifflintown, Pa., before acquiring and editing (1850-56, 1862-64) the
Franklin Repository at Chambersburg. He was an early and active Republican, and, at the party's national convention in 1860, he and Andrew G. Curtin swung the pivotal Pennsylvania delegation to Lincoln. As chairman of the state committee, McClure built up the Republican organization that secured the governorship for Curtin and Pennsylvania's electoral votes for Lincoln. He served in both houses of the state legislature and after the Civil War practiced law in Philadelphia. McClure supported Gen. U. S. Grant in 1868, but in 1872 was one of the leaders of the Liberal Republican party, which nominated Horace Greeley for President. In 1874 he was defeated for mayor of Philadelphia. He founded (1875) the Philadelphia
Times and was its editor until 1901.
See his recollections (1902).
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McClernand, John Alexander, 1812-1900, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Breckinridge co., Ky. He was admitted (1832) to the Illinois bar and sat as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843-51, 1859-61). At the outbreak of the Civil War he resigned from Congress, raised a brigade of Illinois volunteers, and was made a brigadier general (May, 1861). He fought at Fort Donelson (Feb., 1862) and at Shiloh (April). Through political influence he superseded William T. Sherman (Jan. 2, 1863) in command of the river expedition in the
Vicksburg campaign. After McClernand—upon Sherman's suggestion—had successfully assaulted
Arkansas Post (Jan. 11), Ulysses S. Grant assumed his command. In Grant's successful advance on Vicksburg, McClernand led the 13th Corps, fighting at Port Gibson and Champion's Hill, but he was subsequently relieved (June) for insubordination. Restored to his command in Feb., 1864, he resigned his commission in November and returned to the legal profession.
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Mavrokordatos or Mavrocordatos, Alexander, 1791-1865, Greek patriot and statesman. He took an active part in the Greek revolt (1821) against Turkey and wrote the Greek declaration of independence. He was (1822) president of the first national assembly and commander of the army of E Greece. Mavrokordatos was appointed (1832) minister of finance by King Otto I, held numerous ambassadorial posts, and served several times as premier (1833-34, 1841, 1843-44, and 1854-55). Associated with the pro-English party, he always fell short of his potential and was never able to put into effect the political and economic modernization that he advocated.
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Maurocordatos, Alexander: see
Mavrokordatos.
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Macomb, Alexander, 1782-1841, American army officer, b. Detroit, Mich. He entered the army in 1799. In the War of 1812, as brigadier general in command at Plattsburgh, N.Y., in the absence of Gen. Ralph Izard, he repulsed (Sept. 11, 1814) the assault of a greatly superior force under Sir George Prevost; this action, accompanied by the complete defeat of a squadron on Lake Champlain by Thomas Macdonough, caused the British to retreat to Canada. From 1828 until his death he was commanding general of the U.S. army.
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Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 1764?-1820, Canadian fur trader and explorer, b. Scotland. His family took him to the colony of New York in 1774, and later he was sent to Canada. He entered (c.1779) a Montreal fur-trading firm and in a short time became partner of one of the firms that merged (1787) to form the
North West Company. Given (1788) supervision of the important Athabasca fur district, Mackenzie set out (1789) from his headquarters at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca on the first of his two noted trips of exploration. After reaching Great Slave Lake, he followed the then unknown Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. Disappointed because the great river that now bears his name did not prove an avenue to the Pacific and unable to relinquish his hope of discovering a route to the Pacific, Mackenzie made careful preparations for a second expedition and set out again in 1793. He and his party fought their way up the Peace River and its tributary the Parsnip River, crossed the Continental Divide, and discovered the Fraser River, down which they traveled a short distance before they struck overland for the coast. Following the course of the Blackwater River, a western tributary of the Fraser, they reached and crossed the Coast Ranges to the Bella Coola River, which they descended, in a borrowed dugout, to its mouth in a tidal inlet of the Pacific. Thus Mackenzie completed the first overland journey across North America N of Mexico. Shortly after this historic exploit, he left the West, never to return. His
Voyages … to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans (1801) won him wide recognition and a knighthood in 1802. Mackenzie was elected in 1805 to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, but he soon returned (1808) to Scotland, where he lived the rest of his life.
See his journals and letters, ed. by W. K. Lamb (1972); biographies by P. Vail (1964) and R. Daniells (1969).
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Mackenzie, Alexander, 1822-92, Canadian political leader, b. Scotland. Emigrating (1842) to Canada, he worked first as a stonemason in Kingston, Ont., and then as a builder and contractor in Sarnia. In Lambton he became editor (1852) of a Liberal newspaper. Elected (1861) to the Canadian Legislative Assembly, Mackenzie supported the confederation movement and the Liberal leader, George
Brown. A member of the first dominion House of Commons (1867), Mackenzie headed the Liberal opposition to Sir John A.
Macdonald's government; upon its fall (1873) as a result of the
Pacific scandal he became the first Liberal prime minister of the dominion. In 1878, Macdonald came back into power, and Mackenzie, who remained in Parliament until his death, led the Liberal opposition until 1880. During his ministry the courts and provincial governments were strengthened, trade expanded, and immigration, especially to the western provinces, was encouraged.
See his life and times by W. Buckingham and G. W. Ross (1892, repr. 1969).
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Macdonald, Sir John Alexander, 1815-91, Canadian statesman, first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada, b. Glasgow. His parents settled in 1820 in Kingston, Ont. Macdonald first practiced law. With his election (1844) as a Conservative to the legislative assembly, he entered upon his long political career. A forceful man and a vigorous fighter, he quickly rose to leadership in the government of Upper Canada (Ontario). He and Georges Étienne
Cartier of Lower Canada headed the Liberal-Conservatives (a coalition largely of Macdonald's creating), and he became prime minister in 1857. This government fell in 1858, but he continued as a cabinet minister until 1862. He briefly returned (1864) as prime minister before he was joined by George
Brown and others in the "great coalition" ministry (1864-67), which paved the way for the union of the British North American provinces. Macdonald was the most potent figure in bringing about confederation (1867) of the provinces as the Dominion of Canada. His policy as prime minister was dominated by the vigorous attempt to build Canada. Believing that the dominion's prosperity required strong bonds with England, he worked throughout his career to that end. The Northwest Territories were taken over from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869; to facilitate their development, Macdonald's government decided to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway. His personal popularity was not enough when the
Pacific scandal, which involved the railroad, broke (1873), and the government resigned. Changing industrial conditions made Macdonald the advocate of a protectionist policy (known as the National Policy), and he was returned as prime minister in 1878 and served until his death. The transcontinental railroad was completed (1885), and other public works were accomplished. Macdonald was knighted in 1867.
See his correspondence, ed. by J. Pope (1921); biographies by his nephew, J. P. Macpherson (2 vol., 1891) and D. G. Creighton (1952 and 1956); study by D. Swainson (1971).
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MacDowell, Edward Alexander, 1860-1908, American composer, b. New York City. He studied at the conservatories in Paris and Frankfurt and taught (1881-82) at the Darmstadt Conservatory. He held the first chair of music at Columbia Univ. from 1896 until 1904. His outstanding works are four programmatic piano sonatas—Tragica (1893), Eroica (1895), Norse (1900), and Keltic (1901)—and his Indian Suite (1897) for orchestra, which employs adaptations of Native American melodies. In addition, he wrote two piano concertos and numerous smaller works, including the popular Woodland Sketches (1896) and Sea Pieces (1898) for piano. The MacDowell Colony for composers, artists, and writers, founded by his widow, Marian Nevins MacDowell, at their summer home in Peterborough, N.H., is a fulfillment of a plan of MacDowell's.
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Lytton, Victor Alexander George Robert Lytton, 2d earl of, 1871-1947, British diplomat, son of Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st earl of Lytton. He was undersecretary of state for India (1920-22) and governor of Bengal (1922-27). He achieved prominence as chairman of the League of Nations mission to Manchuria (1932); his report recommended in effect economic sanctions against Japan. Lytton's writings include a biography of his father (1913), Antony Viscount Knebworth: A Record of Youth (letters to and from his son, 1935), and The Web of Life(1938).
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Luria, Alexander Romanovich, 1902-77, Soviet psychologist. Luria made advances in many areas, including cognitive psychology, the processes of learning and forgetting, and mental retardation. One of Luria's most important studies charted the way in which damage to specific areas of the brain affect behavior. His writings have been edited by M. Cole and S. Cole, The Making of Mind (tr. 1979).
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Logan, John Alexander, 1826-86, American politician, Union general in the Civil War, b. Murphysboro, Ill. He fought in the Mexican War and practiced law in Illinois. A Democrat who supported Stephen A. Douglas, he served several terms in the state legislature and was elected to Congress in 1858 and 1860. At the first battle of Bull Run (July, 1861), Logan fought in the ranks. Afterward he organized the 31st Illinois Infantry, of which he was made colonel. He served at Fort Donelson (1862) and in the Vicksburg campaign (1862-63). Logan led a corps of the Army of the Tennessee in General Sherman's Atlanta campaign (1864) and commanded that army for a short time. However, Oliver O. Howard was given the permanent command, and Logan returned to his corps for the march through the Carolinas. A radical Republican Congressman (1867-71), he was one of the House managers of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. From 1871 to 1877 and from 1880 until his death he was a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He was the Republican candidate for Vice President in 1884. A founder, and three times president, of the Grand Army of the Republic, Logan was a prominent supporter of legislation for veterans. He inaugurated
Memorial Day in 1868. He wrote
The Volunteer Soldier of America (1887).
See studies by J. P. Jones (1967) and by his wife, M. S. Logan (1913, abr. ed. 1970).
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Linlithgow, Victor Alexander John Hope, 2d marquess of, 1887-1952, British statesman, viceroy of India. Linlithgow was civil lord of the admiralty (1922-24) and held numerous other public positions. As chairman of the committee on Indian constitutional reform (1933), he helped formulate the Government of India Act of 1935, and in 1936 he was appointed viceroy of India. In the first elections held (1937) under the act, the Indian National Congress party won in 7 of the 11 provinces, and Linlithgow persuaded its leaders to take office in spite of their reservations about certain aspects of the act. At the outbreak (1939) of World War II, however, the viceroy, without consulting the Indian parties, declared that India was at war with Germany, and the Congress provincial ministries resigned in protest. In 1942, when Congress mounted a massive civil disobedience campaign at a time when India was threatened by Japanese invasion, he interned the Congress leaders. Linlithgow was succeeded as viceroy in 1943 by Lord Wavell.
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Lindemann, Frederick Alexander (Viscount Cherwell), 1886-1957, British physicist and government official. He studied with W. H. Nernst and developed with him the Nernst-Lindemann theory of specific heat. His achievements also include the Lindemann melting-point formula and the Lindemann electrometer. During World War I he discovered how to recover an aircraft from an uncontrolled spin. Lindemann was scientific adviser to Winston Churchill during World War II, serving also as paymaster general from 1942 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1953. He developed Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, into a major research facility, and he was an important influence in the founding of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
See biographies by R. F. Harrod (1959) and F. Winston, 2d earl of Birkenhead (1961).
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Leven, Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of, 1580?-1661, Scottish general. He served in the Swedish army some 30 years, being knighted by Gustavus II and fighting in the Thirty Years War. Returning to Scotland in 1638, he led the army of the
Covenanters in the
Bishops' Wars. Charles I made him earl in 1641, hoping to gain his support. Nevertheless, following the conclusion of the Solemn League and Covenant between the Scots and the English Parliament (see
English civil war), Leven led (1644) an army into England and took part in the defeat of the king at Marston Moor. When Charles surrendered to the Scottish army in 1646, Leven had charge of him until the royal prisoner was handed over to the English in 1647. Although Leven resigned actual command of the army to his nephew David Leslie before the Scottish Covenanters (by then royalists) were defeated (1650) at Dunbar, he was twice imprisoned briefly in the Tower of London.
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Kipnis, Alexander, 1891-1978, Russian-American operatic bass. He studied conducting at the Warsaw Conservatory and voice in Berlin. He made his operatic debut (1915) in Hamburg. Imprisoned by the Germans in World War I as an enemy alien, he was freed and permitted to sing in Wiesbaden. From 1919 to 1930 he was the principal bass of the Berlin Opera Company. He appeared with the Chicago Opera Company (1923-32) and toured extensively. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera House (1940) was as Gurnemanz in Parsifal. He is noted for his performance of the role of Boris Godunov. His son, Igor Kipnis, 1931-2002, was a well-known harpsichordist.
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Kilham, Alexander, 1762-98, English Methodist minister, founder of the Methodist New Connection. He took a leading part in Methodist affairs after the death of John Wesley, advocating separation from the Church of England (see
Methodism). He supported the right of preachers to administer the Lord's Supper and sought to have powers of church government distributed between clerical and lay members. For a series of pamphlets that he wrote, he was brought to trial at the conference of 1796 and expelled from the connection. In 1798 he and three other preachers formed the Methodist New Connection, the first group of Methodists to break away.
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Kielland, Alexander Lange, 1849-1906, Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Two early volumes of short stories—
Tales of Two Countries (1879, tr. 1891) and
Norse Tales and Sketches (1897)—placed him among the important realists. His witty and ironic novels, written with the purpose of social reform, include
Skipper Worse (1881, tr. 1885) and
Poison (1883). In 1885 he was recommended for a state author's stipend, but the majority of Parliament rejected the idea. His writing was greatly influenced by George
Brandes.
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Kent, George Edward Alexander Edmund, duke of, 1902-42, fourth son of George V of Great Britain. He traveled extensively as "salesman of the empire." A member of the Royal Air Force after 1940, he was killed on active service in a plane crash in Scotland. Three children were born of his marriage (1934) to Princess Marina (1906-68) of Greece: Prince Edward (b. 1935), who succeeded him as duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra (b. 1936), and Prince Michael (b. 1942).
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Karpinsky, Alexander Petrovich, 1846-1936, Soviet geologist. From 1869 to 1885 he was at the Mining Institute, St. Petersburg as student and teacher. He was imperial director (1885-1916) of mining research and in 1886 was elected to what became known as the Soviet Academy of Sciences, of which he was president from 1916 until his death. Karpinsky was noted for his prolific research on various geological subjects, especially paleontology, mineralogy, and petrology. His work was chiefly in the Urals, and he completed the first geological map of European Russia; it appeared in Outline of the Geological History of European Russia (1883-94). At the time of the Soviet revolution he was influential in preserving much scientific equipment and many invaluable records and also in securing for the Academy of Sciences an important role in the new regime.
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Johnston, Alexander Keith, 1804-71, Scottish cartographer and geographer royal of Scotland. He issued many notable atlases, maps, and gazetteers, including The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial, and Political Geography (1843), The Physical Atlas of Natural Phenomena (1848), The Dictionary of Geography (1850; known as Johnston's Gazetteer), and The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography (1861). A son, Alexander Keith Johnston, 1844-79, carried on the work of the map-publishing house founded by his father. He assisted (1873-75) in a survey of Paraguay and died in Africa while leading an expedition of the Royal Geographical Society to Lake Nyasa.
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Johnson, Alexander Bryan, 1786-1867, American philosopher and semanticist, b. Gosport, England. He emigrated (1801) to the United States and eventually became a wealthy banker in Utica, N.Y. Johnson anticipated many of the concerns of logical positivism and modern linguistic philosophy, but his views were ignored in his lifetime and were lost sight of for nearly a century. He held that a statement meant, for a speaker, whatever evidence he adduced or could adduce in its support: Language does not explain the world, rather the world explains language. He showed that many philosophical problems were the result of projecting distinctions of language onto nature, resulting in confusion. In addition to his philosophical works he wrote on politics, economics, and banking. His books included
The Philosophy of Human Knowledge; or A Treatise on Language (1828),
Religion in its Relation to Present Life (1841),
The Philosophical Emperor (1841), and
The Meaning of Words (1854).
See Centennial Conference on the Life and Works of Alexander Bryan Johnson, ed. by C. L. Todd and R. T. Blackwood (1969).
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Humboldt, Alexander, Freiherr von, 1769-1859, German naturalist and explorer. His full name is Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Educated at Göttingen, he studied at Hamburg, Freiberg, and Jena and made several scientific excursions in Europe. In 1792 he was appointed assessor of mines in Berlin. From 1799 to 1804 he made his renowned expedition with A. J. A. Bonpland to Central and South America and Cuba, a journey that did much to lay the foundations for the sciences of physical geography and meteorology. The major ocean current off S America, which was studied by Humboldt, once carried his name, but is now called the Peru Current. He ascended peaks in the Peruvian Andes to study the relation of temperature and altitude, made observations leading to the discovery of meteor shower periodicity, and investigated the fertilizing properties of guano. In 1808 he settled in Paris and published the findings of his New World expedition in
Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland (23 vol., 1805-1834), often cited by the title of Part I,
Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent. Humboldt established the use of
isotherms in map making; studied the origin and course of tropical storms, the increase in magnetic intensity from the equator toward the poles, and volcanology; and made pioneer investigations on the relationship between geographical environment and plant distribution. In 1827 he settled in his native Berlin at the request of the Prussian king. His interest in terrestrial magnetism led him to effect one of the first instances of international scientific cooperation, by forming a system of meteorological stations throughout Russia and the British colonies. In 1829, Humboldt made an expedition to Russia and Siberia. In his
Kosmos (5 vol., 1845-1862; tr. 1849-1858) he sought to combine the vague ideals of the 18th cent. with the exact scientific requirements of the 19th cent. and to formulate a concept of unity amid the complexity of nature.
See biography by C. Kellner (1963); D. Botting, Humboldt and the Cosmos (1973).
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Horsley, Sir Victor Alexander Haden, 1857-1916, English surgeon and neurologist. A specialist in surgery of the endocrine glands and the nervous system, he devised a noted operation for spinal-cord tumor. He wrote
Functions of the Marginal Convolutions (1884) and, with others,
Experiments upon the Functions of the Cerebral Cortex (1888) and
Alcohol and the Human Body (1907).
See studies by S. Paget (1919) and C. J. Bond (1939).
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Henson, Matthew Alexander, 1866-1965, African-American arctic explorer, b. Charles County, Md. He accompanied Robert E.
Peary as personal assistant, dog driver, and interpreter on numerous expeditions to the Arctic between 1891 and 1909. On Apr. 6, 1909, Henson, Peary, and four Eskimos are generally credited with having been the first expedition to reach the North Pole. Henson later was (1913-1936) a clerk in the U.S. Customs House in New York City.
See his A Negro Explorer at the North Pole (1912); S. A. Counter, North Pole Legacy (1991).
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Henry, Alexander, two fur traders, uncle and nephew, of the Old Northwest, each of whom left a valuable journal of his travels and experiences.
Alexander Henry, the elder, 1739-1824, b. New Brunswick, N.J., served under Jeffery Amherst in the last of the
French and Indian Wars. As a fur trader he barely escaped massacre (1763) by Native Americans at Michilimackinac in Pontiac's Rebellion. Captured by the Ojibwa, he was later adopted and protected by a family and made his way back to Fort Niagara in time to join Bradstreet's army in lifting the siege of Detroit. He returned to fur trading and in 1775 penetrated the Old Northwest to the region of the Saskatchewan. Competition with the Hudson's Bay Company caused a body of the free traders, among them Henry, Peter Pond, and the Frobishers, to unite as the group that eventually became the powerful North West Company. See his
Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories (new ed. with biographical notes by James Bain, 1972). The date and place of birth of his nephew,
Alexander Henry, the younger, d. 1814, are not known. His journal of 1799-1814, edited by Elliott Coues (together with the journal of David Thompson) as
New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest (1897), describes his adventures as a trader of the North West Company on the Red, Pembina, Saskatchewan, and Columbia rivers and is particularly valuable for its account of the native tribes of those regions. Henry was drowned near Astoria, Oreg.
See W. O'Meara, The Savage Country (1960).
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Henderson, Alexander, 1583-1646, Scottish churchman often regarded as the greatest figure in the Church of Scotland after John
Knox. Henderson became a leading opponent of prelacy and of English domination of the church. In 1638, after the signing of the National Covenant (see
Covenanters), he was elected moderator of the general assembly at Glasgow, which deposed the bishops and set up
Presbyterianism in spite of royal threats. Henderson met King Charles I to settle the problem and was favorably received. In 1640, he was elected rector of the Univ. of Edinburgh. In 1641 and 1643, he was moderator of the general assembly and presented (1643) a draft of the Solemn League and Covenant. He sat thereafter (1643-46) in the Westminster Assembly. In 1646, he again met Charles for a conference on church government during the course of the king's alliance with the Scottish army. Henderson wrote many speeches and sermons.
See biographies by J. P. Thomson (1912) and R. L. Orr (1919).
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Helms, Jesse Alexander, 1921-2008, U.S. senator from North Carolina (1973-2003), b. Monroe, N.C. He served in the navy, chiefly as a recruiter, during World War II. A local radio broadcasting executive (1948-51), Helms gained prominence (1960-72) as a staunchly conservative, segregation-defending Raleigh, N.C., radio and television commentator and a syndicated newspaper columnist. He also served (1957-61) on the Raleigh City Council. In 1970 he changed his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican, and in 1972 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina. Known for his outspoken, often unyielding support of right-wing causes, Helms retired after serving five terms in the Senate. He championed a strong military establishment and prayer in the public schools while opposing school busing, civil-rights legislation, foreign aid, gun control, abortion rights, gay rights, and government support for the arts. A polarizing figure, he often blocked Senate votes, forced roll calls, and opposed presidents, earning him the nickname "Senator No." Helms chaired the Senate agriculture committee (1981-87) and foreign relations committee (1995-2001).
See his memoir (2005); biography by W. A. Link (2008).
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Healy, George Peter Alexander, 1813-94, American painter, b. Boston. He began painting portraits at the age of 18 and, disregarding background, concentrated on producing a good likeness. Examples of his art are the portraits of Louis Philippe, François Guizot, and a self-portrait (Uffizi); Daniel Webster and Longfellow (Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston); Mrs. John C. Cruger and a self-portrait (Metropolitan Mus.); Chief Justice Taney (Capitol, Washington, D.C.); a series of the Presidents (Corcoran Gall.); and Lincoln (Newberry Library, Chicago).
See his Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter (1894).
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Hamilton, Alexander, 1755-1804, American statesman, b. Nevis, in the West Indies.
Early Career
He was the illegitimate son of James Hamilton (of a prominent Scottish family) and Rachel Faucett Lavien (daughter of a doctor-planter on Nevis and the estranged wife of a merchant). Orphaned and impoverished at around the age of 12, the brilliant, ambitious youth arrived in the North American colonies late in 1772 and studied (1773-74) at King's College (now Columbia). In the troubled times leading to the American Revolution, he wrote articles and pamphlets espousing the colonial cause so well that the works were popularly attributed to John Jay.
In the war he became a captain of artillery, attracted George Washington's notice, and, as Washington's secretary and aide-de-camp, performed invaluable services. Desiring more active duty, he left Washington's staff in 1781 and performed brilliantly in the field at Yorktown. His marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler, daughter of Gen. Philip J. Schuyler, connected him with an old and powerful New York family. He practiced law in New York City and was a member of the Continental Congress.
Federalist Leader
By 1780 Hamilton had outlined a plan of government with a strong central authority to replace the weak system of the Articles of Confederation, and as delegate (1782-83) to the Continental Congress he pressed continually for strengthening of the national government. It was Hamilton who proposed at the unsuccessful Annapolis Convention (1786) that a constitutional convention be called at Philadelphia in May, 1787, and he was one of New York's three delegates when it was convened.
Although he believed the Constitution to be deficient in the powers that it gave the national government, he did much to get it ratified, particularly by means of his contributions to The Federalist. In New York, Hamilton was a powerful constitutional supporter, fighting vigorously against the opposition of George Clinton and becoming perhaps the strongest advocate of the new instrument of government aside from James Madison.
In the first decade of the republic, Hamilton played a decisive role in shaping domestic and foreign policy. As Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, he presented (1790) a far-reaching financial program to the first Congress. He proposed that the debt accumulated by the Continental Congress be paid in full, that the federal government assume all state debts, and that a Bank of the United States be chartered. For revenue, Hamilton advocated a tariff on imported manufactures and a series of excise taxes. He hoped by these measures to strengthen the national government at the expense of the states and to tie government to men of wealth and prosperity.
Hamilton was a well-to-do lawyer and banker (he helped to found the Bank of New York), and his own high connections aroused suspicion among the less conservative; his policies alienated agrarian interests and drew opposition from those who feared concentration of power in the federal government. Widespread antipathy to party divisions muted the opposition, however, and Congress adopted the Hamiltonian program.
Foreign affairs soon brought this unity to an end. Hamilton's program depended for success on continued trade with Great Britain. He supported Jay's Treaty (1794), and, opposed to the French Revolution, encouraged strong measures against France in the near-war of 1798—measures bitterly opposed by the pro-French Thomas Jefferson.
Two opposing parties formed: the Federalists, led by Hamilton and John Adams (then President), and the Democratic Republicans (see Democratic party), led by Jefferson and James Madison. Hamilton was perhaps the most powerful of the Federalists, but he was not in complete command of the party (he had even resigned his cabinet post in 1795, largely for financial reasons). There was little personal liking between Hamilton and Adams, and friction between them grew in the course of the Adams administration. Both were swept under in the election of 1800.
Because the Constitution did not provide for the election of the President and Vice President on separate ballots, a tie between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr, left the choice of chief executive to the House of Representatives in 1800. Hamilton's influence made Jefferson President and Burr Vice President—an outcome in accord with the popular will, but Burr was disgruntled.
When in 1804 Hamilton again thwarted Burr, keeping him from the governorship of New York, Burr accused Hamilton of having called him a "dangerous" man and, when Hamilton replied to the charge, challenged him to a duel. The two men met at Weehawken Heights, N.J., and Hamilton was mortally wounded.
Bibliography
See the definitive edition of Hamilton's papers (ed. by H. C. Syrett, 27 vol., 1961-87) and law papers (ed. by J. Goebel, Jr., and J. H. Smith, 5 vol., 1964-81) as well as Alexander Hamilton: Writings (ed. by J. B. Freeman, 2001). See also biographies by H. C. Lodge (1898), N. Schachner (1946, repr. 1961), B. Mitchell (2 vol., 1957-62), J. C. Miller (1959, repr. 1964), F. McDonald (1979), R. Brookhiser (1999), W. S. Randall (2002), R. Chernow (2004), and one in his own words, ed. by M.-J. Kline (2 vol., 1973); R. Morris, ed., Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation (1957); C. Rossiter, Alexander Hamilton and the Constitution (1964); J. E. Cooke, ed., Alexander Hamilton: A Profile (1967); G. Stourzh, Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government (1970); B. Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton: The Revolutionary Years (1970); S. Elkins and E. McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (1993); A. A. Rogow, A Fatal Friendship (1998); T. Fleming, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (1999); R. G. Kennedy, Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character (1999).
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Hales, Alexander of: see
Alexander of Hales.
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Haig, Alexander Meigs, Jr., 1924-, American general and public official, U.S. Secretary of State (1981-82), b. Philadelphia, grad. West Point, 1947. He served in Korea (1950-51) and held several staff positions, including military assistant to the Secretary of the Army (1964), before serving in Vietnam (1966-67). As military adviser to Henry Kissinger (1969-73) he became an important member of the National Security Council staff. During the later stages of the
Watergate affair he served as President Nixon's civilian chief of staff (1973-74). A four-star general, he served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization's forces (1974-79). In 1981 he became President
Reagan's Secretary of State. His sudden resignation (1982) was attributed to disagreements over foreign policy. In 1988, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination.
See his memoir Caveat (1984), and How America Changed the World (1992).
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Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch, 1817-93, Canadian statesman, b. England; son of John Galt. In 1835 he went to Canada in the service of the British American Land Company. He directed (1844-55) the affairs of this company and was also involved in promoting the building of railroads. He was a member of the Canadian Legislative Assembly (1849-50, 1853-67) and of the Canadian House of Commons (1867-72). Although Galt had in 1849 signed the manifesto favoring the annexation of Canada by the United States, he became one of the most persistent and influential leaders of the movement for confederation of the provinces, and when he accepted (1858) the ministry of finance in the Cartier-Macdonald administration, it was on the understanding that the government would work to achieve confederation. In 1859, in answer to Great Britain's protests against the protective tariff newly adopted by Canada, Galt declared that Canada must be allowed control of its financial policies. While serving (1858-62, 1864-66) as minister of finance he was an influential member of the two conferences (1864) on confederation and of the London Conference that resulted in the British North America Act. He became (1867) minister of finance in the first dominion government, but he resigned in 1868 because of disagreement with Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and in 1872 retired from Parliament. He was the dominant member of the Halifax Fisheries Commission, which won for Canada a large award from the United States. From 1880 to 1883 he served as Canadian high commissioner in London, the first to hold that position. In the last 10 years of his life he had economic interests in W Canada, among them the development of coal deposits in Alberta; in this connection he founded
Lethbridge. He was knighted in 1878.
See biography by O. D. Skelton (rev. ed. 1966).
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Fredro, Alexander, 1793-1876, Polish comic dramatist. From 1809 to 1814, Fredro served in the Polish regiments of Napoleon I's army, taking part in the invasion of Russia. He returned to the family estates in Poland, devoting himself to the life of a country gentleman and writing plays that were at first influenced by the Molière and Goldoni works he had seen in Paris.
Husband and Wife, the best of his early dramas, was performed in 1822. Of his many facile plays, the best-known include
Ladies and Hussars (1825),
Maidens' Vows (1832),
Mister Joviality (1832),
The Vengeance (1833), and
The Life Annuity (1835). His period of literary inactivity from 1835 to 1854 was in part the result of attacks from literary critics. Fredro's plays are notable for their brilliant characterization, complex plots, and idiomatic, colorful language.
See The Major Comedies of Alexander Fredro, ed. by H. B. Segel (4 vol., tr. 1969).
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Forsyth, Alexander John, 1769-1843, Scottish inventor. He invented in 1807 the first workable percussion cap for the ignition of gunpowder in firearms. Forsyth refused an offer from Napoleon of £20,000 for the secret and was later pensioned by the British government.
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Fleming, Sir Alexander, 1881-1955, Scottish bacteriologist, discoverer of penicillin (1928) and lysozyme (1922), an antibacterial substance found in saliva and other body secretions. Educated at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, Univ. of London, where he later became professor of bacteriology, he published many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy. He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst B. Chain and Sir Howard W. Florey for work on penicillin. Fleming was knighted in 1944.
See biography by G. MacFarlane (1985).
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Dyce, Alexander, 1798-1869, Scottish editor. He is best known for his scholarly editions of the works of Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists, including those of George Peele, Robert Greene, John Webster, Christopher Marlowe, Beaumont and Fletcher, and a nine-volume edition of Shakespeare (rev. ed. 1864-67).
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Duff, Alexander, 1806-78, Scottish missionary in India. In Calcutta (now Kolkata) he opened (1830) a mission college which became an important center of education in India; both religious and scientific subjects were taught. Duff was also instrumental in founding the Univ. of Calcutta. In 1844 he helped to launch the Calcutta Review.
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Dubček, Alexander, 1921-92, Czechoslovakian political leader. A member of the Slovakian national minority, he was active in the Communist underground in World War II and rose in the party hierarchy after the war, becoming head of the Slovakian Communist party and a member of the presidium of the Communist party's central committee. In 1967 he led the liberal opposition to the party's first secretary, Antonín
Novotný. In Jan., 1968, Novotný was forced to resign; Dubček succeeded him. In Dubček's brief term in office he relaxed censorship, placed liberal Communists in leading state posts, began to pursue an independent foreign policy, and promised a gradual democratization of Czech political life. This period is known as the Prague Spring. The USSR became increasingly alarmed at Dubček's policies, and in Aug., 1968, Soviet and other Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. Dubček was arrested along with other leaders, taken to Moscow, and forced to consent to the cancellation of key reforms. He retained his post as first secretary, but pro-Soviet elements in the Czech party soon (1969) removed him. After serving briefly as ambassador to Turkey (1969-70), he fell into official disgrace. He returned to public view in the late 1980s as a supporter of the Civic Reform opposition party led by Václav
Havel. From 1989 to 1992, Dubček served as speaker of the Czechoslovak parliament, where his presence provided a direct connection between the new government and the reforms of the Prague Spring.
See K. Dawisha, The Kremlin and the Prague Spring (1984).
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Drew, George Alexander, 1894-1973, Canadian political leader. A lawyer, he led the Conservative party in Ontario from 1938 and served in the provincial legislature (1939-48) and in the House of Commons (1949-56). From 1943 until he resigned in 1948, Drew was premier of Ontario and minister of education, laying the foundation for extensive educational reforms. From 1948 to 1956 he was national leader of the Progressive Conservative party. He then served (1957-64) as Canadian high commissioner to Great Britain.
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Dowie, John Alexander, 1847-1907, founder of the
Christian Catholic Church, b. Scotland. He emigrated (1860) to Australia, where he was ordained as a Congregational minister. Dowie's teaching included belief in the healing of disease by prayer, and he founded the International Divine Healing Association. Dowie went to the United States in 1888; he founded his church in Chicago in 1896. In 1901, Dowie established Zion, Ill., which was composed of his followers and governed by special regulations laid down by him. Soon his administration was under criticism, and in 1905 he was deposed.
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Douglas-Home, Alexander Frederick, Baron Home of the Hirsel, 1903-95, British politician. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1931 as a Conservative. As parliamentary private secretary (1937-39) to Neville
Chamberlain, he supported the latter's policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany. He lost his Commons seat in 1945; reelected in 1950 he resigned (1951) when he succeeded his father's peerage as the 14th earl of Home. He served as minister of state (1951-55), secretary of state for commonwealth relations (1955-60), and leader of the House of Lords (1957-60). As foreign secretary (1960-63), he pursued a policy of détente with the USSR and worked for the establishment of an independent British nuclear deterrent.
In Oct., 1963, he became prime minister after Harold Macmillan's resignation, emerging as the controversial compromise choice of a divided party. The first peer to become prime minister since 1902, he renounced his Scottish title for life and took a seat in Commons as Sir Alec Douglas-Home. As prime minister, he was handicapped by the divisions within his party and the continuing distraction of the Profumo scandal.
After the Conservative defeat in Oct., 1964, he led the opposition until July, 1965. During his term as Conservative party leader, reforms gave the party's members of Parliament the power to elect the party leader. Douglas-Home was foreign secretary (1970-74) under Edward Heath. He retained his seat in Commons until 1974, when he was created a life peer.
See his autobiography The Way the Wind Blows (1976).
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Doniphan, Alexander William, 1808-87, American lawyer and soldier, b. Mason co., Ky. He began (1830) to practice law in Lexington, Mo., and served three terms in the state legislature, becoming involved in the Mormon issue. In 1838, Doniphan, as brigadier general of the state militia, was ordered against the Mormons by the governor but flatly refused to carry out orders to execute Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders. At the opening of the Mexican War he organized a mounted regiment of Missouri volunteers that formed part of Stephen W. Kearny's force in his march on Santa Fe. When Kearny continued to California, Doniphan was left in command in New Mexico, where he subdued and made peace with the Navajo. In Dec., 1846, turning over the command at Santa Fe to Sterling Price, Doniphan, on Kearny's orders, set out with 856 men for Chihuahua to join John Wool's army. Not far along the way his undisciplined but capable fighting outfit routed (Dec. 25) the Mexicans in a farcical engagement at the Brazito River, near El Paso, which was easily occupied. They then pushed on to a point c.15 mi (24 km) N of Chihuahua, where, in the battle of Sacramento (Feb. 28, 1847), they again defeated the Mexicans. Chihuahua was taken the next day. Since Wool was not there as planned, Doniphan began another long march E to Saltillo, which was reached late in May. A few days later Doniphan and his men were commended by Zachary Taylor at Monterrey; then, their terms of enlistment being completed, they went down the Rio Grande, sailed for New Orleans, and returned to Missouri. The entire march, covering some 3,600 mi (5,793 km) and conducted with small loss under adverse circumstances, is one of the famous expeditions in American history. Doniphan, who returned to law practice at Richmond, Mo., opposed secession and favored neutrality for Missouri in 1861. Although offered high command by the Union, he took no active part in the Civil War.
See contemporary accounts by F. S. Edwards (1847, repr. 1966), F. A. Wislizenus (1848, repr. 1969), and J. Robinson (1848, repr. 1972); J. H. Smith, The War with Mexico (1919).
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Davis, Alexander Jackson, 1803-92, American architect, b. New York City. He was the partner of Ithiel Town of New Haven, with whom he designed many important buildings in both the Greek and Gothic revival styles. Works by him include the New York Customs House (1832), now the Subtreasury; the state capitols of Indiana (1832-35), North Carolina (1831, in association with David Paton), Illinois (1837), and Ohio (1839); and a number of villas along the Hudson River, including Lyndhurst (1838-42). The most prolific practitioner of his time, Davis also anticipated, in a New York shop front designed in 1835, the architectural use of iron.
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Dallas, Alexander James, 1759-1817, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1814-16), b. Jamaica, West Indies. He went (1783) to Philadelphia, practiced law, and was secretary of state (1791-1801) and U.S. district attorney (1801-14) in Pennsylvania. Appointed secretary of the treasury by President
Madison, Dallas succeeded to the office near the close of the War of 1812, when treasury affairs were in an extremely critical conditon. He pushed Congress to levy taxes heavier than any previously borne in the United States and asked for the reestablishment of the
Bank of the United States. Under Dallas's administration confidence in U.S. currency was restored. After securing Madison's veto on the first bank bill, which did not suit him, Dallas largely dictated the second bill, which John C.
Calhoun forced through Congress; it became law in 1816.
See biographies by his son George Mifflin Dallas (1871) and R. Walters, Jr. (1943, repr. 1969).
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Cuza, Alexander John, or Alexander John I, 1820-73, first prince of Romania (1859-66), b. Moldavia. An officer who participated in the 1848 revolution and in the political struggle for the union of the principalities, he was elected prince of both Moldavia and Walachia in 1859, and in 1862 he was recognized by the Ottoman Empire as sovereign of the united principalities, thenceforth known as Romania. In 1864 he emancipated the serfs and allowed peasants to acquire land, thereby alienating the powerful landlords. His educational and legal reforms included the founding of the universities of Bucharest and of Iaşi and the promulgation of penal and civil codes. In 1866, conspirators, taking advantage of the country's financial difficulties, discontent over the agrarian policy, and Cuza's scandalous personal life, forced him to abdicate. He went into exile, first to Paris, later to Vienna, Florence, and Heidelberg.
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Cunningham, Sir Alexander, 1814-93, English archaeologist and army engineer; son of Allan Cunningham. He retired (1861) as a major general after 30 years of service with the Bengal engineers and then was head (1861-65, 1870-85) of the archaeological survey of India. In 1867 he was knighted. Among his books are
Bhilsa Topes (1854), a history of Buddhism based on architectural remains;
The Ancient Geography of India (1871, 2d ed. 1924), of which only one volume was written;
The Book of Indian Eras (1883); and
Coins of Ancient India (1891). His collection of rare coins is in the British Museum.
See study by A. Imam (1966).
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Cruden, Alexander, 1701-70, author of a famous biblical concordance, b. Aberdeen, Scotland. He spent most of his life near London. In 1737 he published his Complete Concordance to the Holy Scriptures, which went through several editions and is the basis of later biblical concordances.
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Crerar, Thomas Alexander, 1876-1975, Canadian political leader. Under his able direction the United Grain Growers, Ltd., of which he was president (1907-29), became one of the most successful farmers' cooperative movements in W Canada. A Liberal, Crerar served (1917-19) as minister of agriculture in Sir Robert Borden's coalition cabinet; he resigned in protest against the government's high tariff policy. He was leader (1920-21) of the new National Progressive party and of the Progressives in the House of Commons, retiring in 1922 to private life. He reentered the political scene as minister of railways and canals (1929-30) in Mackenzie King's Liberal government and later served (1935-45) as minister of mines and resources in King's cabinet. In 1945, Crerar was appointed to the Canadian Senate, serving until 1966.
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Cozens, Alexander, c.1717-1786, English draftsman and writer, b. Russia. Cozens is thought to have been the first principal English master to work entirely with landscape subjects. He invented a system of "blot" drawings using accidental blots on drawing paper to aid his imagination by suggesting a landscape that could be further developed. In the 1950s his work was exhibited as that of a precursor of the
abstract expressionists. He expounded his blot system in his treatise,
A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape (c.1785). His son,
John Robert Cozens, 1752-97, English watercolor landscape artist, is best known for his poetic paintings of the Alps and Italy. His work had an influence on both Turner and Girtin. Examples of his watercolors are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the British Museum (all: London).
See A. P. Oppé, Alexander and John Robert Cozens (1953).
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Cooper, Alexander: see under
Cooper, Samuel.
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Colyn, Alexander: see
Colins, Alexander.
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Colins, Colin, or Colyn, Alexander, c.1527-1612, Flemish sculptor. He brought European court mannerism to Germany, where he directed the sculpture on the Ottheinrichsbau (1562) in Heidelberg. He designed the sculpture for the tomb of Ferdinand II and executed most of the reliefs in marble on the tomb of Maximilian I, both at Innsbruck.
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Colin, Alexander: see
Colins, Alexander.
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Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund, 1802-80, British jurist. He was called to the bar in 1829, and a volume of reports on election cases (1832) brought him into national prominence as a trial lawyer. He was made recorder for Southampton (1841) and was elected to Parliament from there (1847). He was noted particularly for his defense advocacy, one of his most famous successes being the acquittal (1843) of Daniel McNaghten, who had killed Sir Robert Peel's secretary, on grounds of insanity; the "McNaghten rules" became the basic definition of criminal responsibility in most English-speaking jurisdictions. In Parliament, Cockburn successfully defended Lord Palmerston's handling of the "Don Pacifico" dispute (1850). He served as attorney general (1851-56) and was chief justice of common pleas (1856-59) and lord chief justice (1859-80), presiding over the famous Tichborne case.
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Castrén, Matthias Alexander, 1813-52, Finnish philologist, one of the first scholars to study the Finno-Ugric languages. Castrén was long a professor at the Univ. of Helsingfors (now Helsinki).
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Campbell, Alexander, 1788-1866, clergyman, cofounder with his father,
Thomas Campbell, 1763-1854, of the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Of Scottish lineage, both were born in Ireland and educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. Both were Anti-Burgher Presbyterians, a division opposed to the discipline of the main church. In 1807 the father went to America, where he was welcomed among the Scotch-Irish in SW Pennsylvania. His presbytery condemned him for asking all Presbyterians to join his church members in the communion service. Although his synod upheld him, the atmosphere remained so hostile that he and his followers, popularly called Campbellites, withdrew. They formed (1809) the Christian Association of Washington, Pa., setting forth its purposes in a "Declaration and Address." That year Campbell was joined in America by his family. In c.1812, having accepted the doctrine of immersion, the Campbells joined the Baptists, but by the late 1820s differences caused trouble. Alexander Campbell, who had assumed leadership, advocated a return to scriptural simplicity in organization and doctrine; his followers became known as Reformers. He founded (1823) the
Christian Baptist to promote his views and addressed audiences in the new western states. He edited (from 1830) the
Millennial Harbinger, wrote
The Christian System (1839), and in 1840 founded Bethany College in West Virginia and became its president. Meanwhile, the Reformers had seceded from or been forced out of many Baptist churches, and Campbell suggested that they form congregations and call themselves Disciples of Christ. Many of the "Christians," led chiefly by Barton Warren
Stone, joined congregations of the Disciples; in 1832 the two leaders agreed to unite their efforts.
See R. Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (2 vol., 1868-70); S. M. Eames, The Philosophy of Alexander Campbell (1966); E. J. Wrather, Creative Freedom in Action (1968).
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Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976, American sculptor, b. Philadelphia; son of a prominent sculptor, Alexander Stirling Calder. Among the most innovative modern sculptors, Calder was trained as a mechanical engineer. In 1930 he went to Paris and was influenced by the art of Mondrian and Miró. In 1932 he exhibited his first brightly colored constellations, called
mobiles, consisting of painted cut-out shapes connected by wires and set in motion by wind currents. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, has several examples. These buoyant inventions and his witty wire portraits, his colorful and complex miniature zoo (1925; Whitney Mus., New York City), and his immobile sculptures known as
stabiles, have brought Calder world renown. Many of his later works are huge, heavy, and delicately balanced mobiles produced for public buildings throughout the world. Calder is also noted for his book illustrations and stage sets. He had studios in Roxbury, Conn., and Paris.
See his autobiography (1966) and Mobiles and Stabiles (1968); biography by J. M. Marter (1991); J. Lipman, ed., Calder's Circus (1972); studies by J. J. Sweeney (1951), M. Gibson (1988), D. Marchesseau (1989), G.-G. Lemaire (1998), M. Prather et al. (1998), and S. C. Rower (1998).
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Bustamante, Sir Alexander, 1884-1977, prime minister of Jamaica (1962-67). The son of an Irish father and a Jamaican mother, he was adopted and taken to Spain as a child. He joined the Spanish army, then traveled extensively, working at a wide variety of jobs. Returning to Jamaica in 1932, he became active in the labor movement, gaining prominence with his flaming oratory, and founded the country's largest trade union. After being jailed (1941-42) as a rabble-rouser, he formed (1943) the Jamaica Labour party, a relatively conservative group that attracted right-wing support. He was chief minister (1953-55) and became prime minister in Apr., 1962; independence within the Commonwealth of Nations was achieved that August. A flamboyant leader, he maintained close relations with the United States and launched an ambitious five-year program of public works and land reform. Illness caused him to retire from politics in 1967. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1955.
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Bustamante, Sir Alexander, 1884-1977, prime minister of Jamaica (1962-67). The son of an Irish father and a Jamaican mother, he was adopted and taken to Spain as a child. He joined the Spanish army, then traveled extensively, working at a wide variety of jobs. Returning to Jamaica in 1932, he became active in the labor movement, gaining prominence with his flaming oratory, and founded the country's largest trade union. After being jailed (1941-42) as a rabble-rouser, he formed (1943) the Jamaica Labour party, a relatively conservative group that attracted right-wing support. He was chief minister (1953-55) and became prime minister in Apr., 1962; independence within the Commonwealth of Nations was achieved that August. A flamboyant leader, he maintained close relations with the United States and launched an ambitious five-year program of public works and land reform. Illness caused him to retire from politics in 1967. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1955.
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Burnes, Sir Alexander, 1805-41, British traveler in India. As an army officer in India, he studied Asian languages. In 1832 he left Lahore in Afghan dress and traveled by way of Peshawar and Kabul across the Hindu Kush to Balkh and from there by Bukhara, Asterabad, and Tehran to Bushire. In 1839 he was appointed political resident at Kabul, where he was assassinated two years later.
See his Narrative of a Visit to the Court of Scinde (1830) and Travels into Bokhara (1834).
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Bruce, Victor Alexander, 9th earl of Elgin: see under
Elgin, James Bruce, 8th earl of.
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Browne, Thomas Alexander, pseud. Rolf Boldrewood, 1826-1915, Australian author. A squatter, a magistrate, and a commissioner in the gold fields, he wrote many books of life in Australia, such as Robbery under Arms (1888) and Ghost Camp (1902).
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Brook, Alexander, 1898-1980, American painter, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Brook's paintings, which are consistently realistic, include portraits, still-life subjects, landscapes, and figures. His color is subtle and reserved. A deep respect for human personality characterizes much of his work, often with overtones of wry humor or irony. Among his major works are
Amalia (Toledo Mus. of Art),
Peggy Bacon and Metaphysics (Univ. of Nebraska), and
The Sentinels (Whitney Mus., New York City). Brook was married (1920-40) to the artist Peggy
Bacon and later to the painter Gina Knee.
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Binns, John Alexander, c.1761-1813, American agriculturist, b. Loudoun co., Va. He was one of the first to experiment with gypsum as a fertilizer and to convince others of its efficacy. Partly through example and partly through his pamphlet, Treatise on Practical Farming (1903), what came to be known as the Loudoun system of soil treatment spread rapidly throughout Virginia and Maryland and ultimately into other states.
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Berkman, Alexander, 1870?-1936, anarchist, b. Vilna (then in Russian Lithuania). He emigrated to the United States c.1887. At the time of the Homestead, Pa., strike (1892) Berkman attempted to kill Henry Clay
Frick, but succeeded only in wounding him. He served 14 years of a 22-year sentence imposed for this attack. His association with Emma
Goldman, begun before his imprisonment, was resumed after his release. In 1917 they were arrested for obstructing the draft and in 1919 were deported to Russia. Disappointed in his hope of finding the freedom that he sought under the Bolshevik government, Berkman left Russia and in various European cities supported himself by translation. He committed suicide in Nice. His writings include
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912, repr. 1970),
The Bolshevik Myth (1925),
The Anti-Climax (1925), and
Now and After: the A.B.C. of Communist Anarchism (1929).
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Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819-1905, Scottish-American educator, b. Edinburgh. Bell worked out a physiological or visible alphabet, with symbols that were intended to represent every sound of the human voice. He taught elocution in Edinburgh (1843-65), lectured at the Univ. of London and in Boston, and engaged in the education of deaf-mutes in Washington, D.C. He wrote about education and the science of speech. Alexander Graham Bell was his son.
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Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922, American scientist, inventor of the
telephone, b. Edinburgh, Scotland, educated at the Univ. of Edinburgh and University College, London; son of Alexander Melville Bell. He worked in London with his father, whose system of visible speech he used in teaching the deaf to talk. In 1870 he went to Canada, and in 1871 he lectured, chiefly to teachers of the deaf, in Boston and other cities. During the next few years he conducted his own school of vocal physiology in Boston, lectured at Boston Univ., and worked on his inventions. His teaching methods were of lasting value in the improvement of education for the deaf.
As early as 1865, Bell conceived the idea of transmitting speech by electric waves. In 1875, while he was experimenting with a multiple harmonic telegraph, the principle of transmission and reproduction came to him. By Mar. 10, 1876, his apparatus was so far developed that the first complete sentence transmitted, "Watson, come here; I want you," was distinctly heard by his assistant. The first demonstration took place before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston on May 10, 1876, and a more significant one, at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition the same year, introduced the telephone to the world. The Bell Telephone Company was organized in July, 1877. A long period of patent litigation followed in which Bell's claims were completely upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
With the 50,000 francs awarded him as the Volta Prize for his invention, he established in Washington, D.C., the Volta Laboratory, where the first successful sound recorder, the Graphophone, was produced. Bell invented the photophone, which transmitted speech by light rays; the audiometer, another invention for the deaf; the induction balance, used to locate metallic objects in the human body; and the flat and the cylindrical wax recorders for phonographs. He investigated the nature and causes of deafness and made an elaborate study of its heredity.
In 1880 the magazine Science, which became the official organ for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was founded largely through his influence. Bell was president of the National Geographic Society from 1898 to 1903 and was made a regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1898. After 1895 his interest was occupied largely by aviation. He invented the tetrahedral kite. The Aerial Experiment Association, founded under his patronage in 1907, brought together G. H. Curtiss, F. W. Baldwin, and others, who invented the aileron principle and developed the hydroplane.
See biographies by C. D. Mackenzie (1928, repr. 1971), A. Johnson (1985), E. S. Grosvenor and M. Wesson (1997), and T. Foster (1998).
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Barclay, Alexander, 1475?-1552, Scottish clergyman and poet. Although the first to write pastoral eclogues in English, he is best known for The Ship of Fools (1509), a translation and elongation of Sebastian Brant's widely popular poem Das Narrenschiff.
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Bain, Alexander, 1818-1903, Scottish philosopher and psychologist. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he later taught for three years. He taught one year (1845) at Anderson's Univ., Glasgow, but resigned to do free-lance work in London. There he joined a brilliant circle including George Grote and John Stuart Mill, with whom he already had close literary relationships. From 1860 to 1880 he held the chair of logic and English at the Univ. of Aberdeen, where he worked for educational reform. After his retirement he was twice elected lord rector of the university. His major contributions were in psychology. Remaining in the associationalist tradition of the Mills and sharing their distrust of metaphysics, he developed the current psychology in several directions. In discussing the will, he favored physiological over metaphysical explanations, pointing to reflexes as evidence that a form of will, independent of consciousness, inheres in a person's limbs. He sought to chart physiological correlates of mental states but refused to make any materialistic assumptions. Besides being the founder of the first psychological journal, Mind, in 1886, Bain was the author of The Senses and the Intellect (1855), The Emotions and the Will (1859), Mental and Moral Science (1868), Education as a Science (1879), James Mill (1882), John Stuart Mill (1882), and an autobiography (pub. posthumously with a bibliography of his works, 1904).
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Bach, Alexander, 1813-93, Austrian politician. A well-known lawyer and liberal, he took part in the
revolution of 1848 in Vienna, but after its suppression he joined the forces of reaction. He became minister of justice (1848) and of the interior (1849-59), and after the death (1852) of Prince Schwarzenberg was the chief figure in the ministry. He was created baron in 1854. Bach instituted the
Bach system of bureaucratic control of the Hapsburg lands. Centralization and Germanization were its chief aims; stringent control by secret police was the method of enforcing them. This program was accompanied, however, by measures promoting economic prosperity, notably the abolition of internal tariff barriers, and by agricultural reforms implementing the emancipation of the serfs. Through the Concordat of 1855 the Roman Catholic Church gained wide powers. The Bach system met with opposition, especially in Hungary, and after the Austrian defeat in the Italian War of 1859 its author was dismissed and new systems introduced.
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Averescu, Alexander, 1859-1938, Romanian general and political leader. He served as a volunteer in the 1877-78 war against the Ottoman Empire and rose to become minister of war in 1907. He distinguished himself as a commander in World War I, especially in the 1916 Dobruja campaign, and gained a great popular following. In late Jan., 1918, he was chosen to form a cabinet to negotiate peace with the Central Powers. Averescu founded (1918) the People's league (later the People's party), which sought moderate land reform and suppression of the left. He was premier in 1920-21 and again in 1926-27 and was made a marshal in 1930.
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Ashburton, Alexander Baring, 1st Baron: see
Baring, family.
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Archipenko, Alexander, 1887-1964, Ukrainian-American sculptor, b. Kiev. He moved to Moscow in 1906 and to Paris in 1908. There he began to adapt cubist technique to sculpture. In 1910 he opened his own art school in Paris, later moved (1921) to Berlin and established a school, and, finally, emigrated (1923) to New York City, where he also founded a school. In 1912, Archipenko introduced sculpto-painting, an attempt to unite form and color via mixed media. However, his major contribution to 20th-century sculpture was his realization of negative form. Archipenko recognized the aesthetic value of the void—the hollowed-out shape or perforation as a complement to the bulging mass—as exemplified by his
Madonna in marble and the bronze
Woman Combing Her Hair (1915, Mus. of Modern Art, New York City). Archipenko also worked in carved plastic lighted from within. His nearly abstract figures gained him international renown; among them are
Torso in Space (Whitney Mus., New York City),
Walking Girl (Honolulu Mus.), and
White Torso (examples in the Chicago Arts Club and in the Fine Art Association, Phoenix, Arizona). Archipenko was also an engineer, ceramist, and teacher.
See his Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years: 1908-1958 (1960); D. H. Karshan, Archipenko: Schlpture, Drawings and Prints, 1908-1963 (1985); K. J. Michaelsen and N. Guralnik, Alexander Archipenko: A Centennial Tribute (1986).
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Alger, Russell Alexander, 1836-1907, U.S. secretary of war (1897-99), b. near Medina, Ohio. After moving to Michigan he engaged in the lumber business, in which he made a fortune. During the Civil War he rose from the ranks to be a brevet major general. Alger was (1885-86) a popular governor of Michigan and was prominent in Republican national affairs. He was made secretary of war by President McKinley, but the inefficiency of his department, which was highly disorganized when he took charge, and his appointment of William R.
Shafter as leader of the Cuban expedition were bitterly criticized, and he resigned. He was later (1902-7) U.S. senator from Michigan.
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Alexander, William, known as
Lord Stirling, 1726-83, American Revolutionary general, b. New York City. Although the House of Lords rejected his claim to succeed as the 6th earl of Stirling, in America he was generally considered a nobleman. He served in the
French and Indian Wars and joined the Continental Army early in the Revolution. Although he fought well at the battle of Long Island (1776), he was captured by the British. After being freed in a prisoner exchange, he saw action at Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. In 1778 he helped to expose the
Conway Cabal.
See A. C. Valentine, Lord Stirling (1969).
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Alexander, Samuel, 1859-1938, British philosopher, b. Australia. From 1893 to 1924 he was professor of philosophy at Victoria Univ., Manchester. Strongly influenced by the theory of evolution, Alexander conceived of the world as a single cosmic process in which higher forms of being emerge periodically. The basic principle of this process is space-time, and the result is God. His works include
Space, Time, and Deity (1920),
Spinoza and Time (1921),
Art and the Material (1925), and
Beauty and Other Forms of Value (1933).
See studies by S. R. Dasgupta (1965) and M. Weinstein (1984).
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Alexander, Harold Rupert Leofric George, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, 1891-1969, British field marshal. His long military career began with service in World War I, followed by a period (1934-38) in the North-West Frontier Province, India. In World War II he directed the retreats at Dunkirk (1940) and in Burma (1942). Then, appointed (Aug., 1942) head of the Middle Eastern Command (see
North Africa, campaigns in), he directed the conquest of Sicily (1943) and the bitter fighting in Italy. In 1944, Alexander was made field marshal and Allied commander in chief in the Mediterranean. In 1946 he was appointed governor-general of Canada (holding the post until 1952) and was created viscount. He became minister of defense under Sir Winston Churchill and was raised (1952) to the rank of earl.
See his Alexander Memoirs: 1940-1945 (1962); biography by N. Nicholson (1973); study by W. G. F. Jackson (1972).
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Alexander, Grover Cleveland, 1887-1950, American baseball player, b. St. Paul, Nebr. One of the great right-handed pitchers in National League history, Alexander pitched 696 games and won 373 of them, compiling a .642 winning percentage. He played for the Philadelphia Phillies (1911-17 and again in 1930), the Chicago Cubs (1918-26), and the St. Louis Cardinals (1926-29). Alexander was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.
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Alexander the Great or
Alexander III, 356-323
B.C., king of Macedon, conqueror of much of Asia.
Youth and Kingship
The son of Philip II of Macedon and Olympias, he had Aristotle as his tutor and was given a classical education. Alexander had no part in the murder of his father, although he may have resented him because he neglected Olympias for another wife. He succeeded to the throne in 336 B.C. and immediately showed his talent for leadership by quieting the restive cities of Greece, then putting down uprisings in Thrace and Illyria. Thebes revolted on a false rumor that Alexander was dead. The young king rushed south and sacked the city, sparing only the temples and Pindar's house.
Conquests
Greece and the Balkan Peninsula secured, Alexander then crossed (334) the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) and, as head of an allied Greek army, undertook the war on Persia that his father had been planning. The march he had begun was to be one of the greatest in history. At the Granicus River (near the Hellespont) he met and defeated a Persian force and moved on to take Miletus and Halicarnassus. For the first time Persia faced a united Greece, and Alexander saw himself as the spreader of Panhellenic ideals. Having taken most of Asia Minor, he entered (333) N Syria and there in the battle of Issus met and routed the hosts of Darius III of Persia, who fled before him.
Alexander, triumphant, now envisioned conquest of the whole of the Persian Empire. It took him nearly a year to reduce Tyre and Gaza, and in 332, in full command of Syria, he entered Egypt. There he met no resistance. When he went to the oasis of Amon he was acknowledged as the son of Amon-Ra, and this may have contributed to a conviction of his own divinity. In the winter he founded Alexandria, perhaps the greatest monument to his name, and in the spring of 331 he returned to Syria, then went to Mesopotamia where he met Darius again in the battle of Guagamela. The battle was hard, but Alexander was victorious. He marched S to Babylon, then went to Susa and on to Persepolis, where he burned the palaces of the Persians and looted the city.
He was now the visible ruler of the Persian Empire, pursuing the fugitive Darius to Ecbatana, which submitted in 330, and on to Bactria. There the satrap Bessus, a cousin of Darius, had the Persian king murdered and declared himself king. Alexander went on through Bactria and captured and executed Bessus. He was now in the regions beyond the Oxus River (the present-day Amu Darya), and his men were beginning to show dissatisfaction. In 330 a conspiracy against Alexander was said to implicate the son of one of his generals, Parmenion; Alexander not only executed the son but also put the innocent Parmenion to death. This act and other instances of his harshness further alienated the soldiers, who disliked Alexander's assuming Persian dress and the manner of a despot.
Nevertheless Alexander conquered all of Bactria and Sogdiana after hard fighting and then went on from what is today Afghanistan into N India. Some of the princes there received him favorably, but at the Hydaspes (the present-day Jhelum River) he met and defeated an army under Porus. He overran the Punjab, but there his men would go no farther. He had built a fleet, and after going down the Indus to its delta, he sent Nearchus with the fleet to take it across the unknown route to the head of the Persian Gulf, a daring undertaking. He himself led his men through the desert regions of modern Baluchistan, S Afghanistan, and S Iran. The march, accomplished with great suffering, finally ended at Susa in 324.
Discord and Death
At Susa Alexander found that many of the officials he had chosen to govern the conquered lands had indulged in corruption and misrule. Meanwhile certain antagonisms had developed against Alexander; in Greece, for instance, many decried his execution of Aristotle's nephew, the historian Callisthenes, and the Greek cities resented his request that they treat him as a god. Alexander's Macedonian officers balked at his attempt to force them to intermarry with the Persians (he had himself married Roxana, a Bactrian princess, as one of his several wives), and they resisted his Eastern ways and his vision of an empire governed by tolerance. There was a mutiny, but it was put down. In 323, Alexander was planning a voyage by sea around Arabia when he caught a fever and died at 33. After his death his generals fell to quarreling about dividing the rule (see Diadochi). His only son was Alexander Aegus, born to Roxana after Alexander's death and destined for a short and pitiful life.
Legacy
Whether or not Alexander had plans for a world empire cannot be determined. He had accomplished greater conquests than any before him, but he did not have time to mold the government of the lands he had taken. Incontestably, he was one of the greatest generals of all time and one of the most powerful personalities of antiquity. He influenced the spread of Hellenism throughout the Middle East and into Asia, establishing city-states modeled on Greek institutions that flourished long after his death. There are many legends about him, e.g., his feats on his horse Bucephalus and his cutting of the Gordian knot. The famous Greek sculptor Lysippus did several studies of Alexander.
Bibliography
Arrian and Plutarch wrote biographies of him in ancient times, and the literature of the Middle Ages romanticized his life. See also study by D. W. Engels (1978); modern biographies by C. B. Welles (1970), R. L. Fox (1974), N. G. L. Hammond (1981), and A. B. Bosworth (1989).
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Alexander of Pherae, d. 358
B.C., tyrant of the city of Pherae in Thessaly after 369
B.C. He was opposed by other Thessalian cities and by the Thebans.
Pelopidas failed (368
B.C.) in one expedition against him and was briefly imprisoned. Returning in 364
B.C., Pelopidas destroyed Alexander's power in the battle of Cynoscephalae, though he himself was killed. Alexander was murdered by members of his own family.
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Alexander of Hales, d. 1245, English scholastic philosopher, called the Unanswerable Doctor by his fellow scholastics. He was a Franciscan and a lecturer at the Univ. of Paris. His Summa universae theologiae was the first systematic exposition of Christian doctrine to introduce Aristotle as a prime authority. His eclectic work also contains elements of Neoplatonism and Augustinian and Arabic ideas. Alexander held that all created things, spiritual as well as corporeal, are made up of matter and form. This teaching became the central feature of Franciscan scholasticism and an important influence on St. Thomas Aquinas.
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Alexander of Aphrodisias, fl. A.D. 200, Greek Peripatetic philosopher. A celebrated ancient commentator on Aristotle, he was often called the Exegete. Among his extant writings are portions of commentaries on several of Aristotle's works, including the Metaphysics, as well as some original treatises. These latter include On the Soul, in which Alexander examines the nature of human intellect, and On Fate, a refutation of the Stoic doctrine of determinism. Some of the works attributed to Alexander are thought to be spurious.
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Alexander VI, 1431?-1503, pope (1492-1503), a Spaniard (b. Játiva) named Rodrigo de Borja or, in Italian, Rodrigo Borgia; successor of Innocent VIII. He took Borja as his surname from his mother's brother Alfonso, who was Pope Calixtus III. Rodrigo became cardinal (1456), vice chancellor of the Roman Church (1457), and dean of the sacred college (1476). Cardinal Borgia had four illegitimate children by a Roman woman, Vannozza; among them were Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia. Alexander was elected by a corrupt conclave. The foreign relations during his papacy were dominated by the increasing influence of France in Italy, which culminated in the invasion of Charles VIII in 1494. Alexander prevented Charles from taking the church property in Rome, but he turned over to the French the valuable Ottoman hostage Djem, brother of Sultan
Beyazid II. Alexander's son, Cesare Borgia, was the principal leader in papal affairs, and papal resources were spent lavishly in building up Cesare's power. For his daughter Lucrezia, Alexander arranged suitable marriages. The favoritism shown his children and the lax moral tone of Renaissance Rome as well as the unscrupulous methods employed by Cesare and other papal officials have made Alexander's name the symbol of the worldly irreligion of Renaissance popes. Girolamo
Savonarola was an outspoken opponent and critic of Alexander. Recent studies tend to minimize the pope's immorality and stress his solid achievements as a political strategist and church administrator. It was Alexander who proclaimed the line of demarcation that awarded part of the new discoveries in the world to Spain, part to Portugal (see
Tordesillas, Treaty of). Alexander was a munificent patron of the arts. He was succeeded by Pius III.
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Alexander Severus (Marcus Aurelius Alexander Severus), d. 235, Roman emperor (222-35), b. Syria. His name was changed (221) from Alexius Bassianus when he was adopted as the successor to
Heliogabalus. Although he won a triumph in a campaign (232) against Ardashir I of Persia, he could not maintain discipline among his own troops and had to retire from battle. In a mutiny on the Rhine, he and his mother, Julia Mamaea, were murdered by the supporters of
Maximin (d. 238).
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Alexander Nevsky [Rus.,=of the Neva], 1220-1263, Russian hero, grand duke of Vladimir-Suzdal. As prince of Novgorod (1236-52) he earned his surname by his victory (1240) over the Swedes on the Neva River. He successfully defended N Russia against its western neighbors by defeating the
Livonian Brothers of the Sword (1242) and the Lithuanians (1245). After the Tatar invasion of Russia Alexander submitted to Tatar rule and was appointed (1252) grand duke by the khan. His submissive attitude toward the Tatars and his suppression of the anti-Tatar movements in Novgorod and other cities provoked much resentment among the local princes and the common people. However, he saved the principality from ruin by his cooperation with the invaders. Russian popular tradition made him a national hero, and he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted (1725) by Catherine I of Russia. Although abolished in 1917, it was revived by the Soviet government in 1942.
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Alexander Karadjordjević or Karageorgevich: see
Alexander, prince of Serbia;
Alexander, king of Yugoslavia.
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Alexander John I, prince of Romania: see
Cuza, Alexander John.
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Alexander III, d. 1181, pope (1159-81), a Sienese named Rolandus [Bandinelli?], successor of Adrian IV. He was a canonist who had studied law under Gratian and had taught at Bologna. He came to Rome under Eugene III, was made a cardinal, and became a trusted adviser of Adrian IV. Alexander's election to the papacy was opposed by a few cardinals, who elected an antipope, Victor IV. Although the antipope was supported only by Germany and some Lombards, the schism thus begun continued until 1178 with antipopes Paschal III and Calixtus III. Alexander was forced (1162) by Emperor
Frederick I into exile in France. In the long struggle with the emperor, the pope was aided by the
Lombard League, which named the town of Alessandria for him. After the battle of Legnano (1176), the emperor was forced to submit. Alexander had already (1174) received the penance of Henry II of England for the murder of St. Thomas Becket, whom Alexander had canonized in 1173. He convened and presided at the Third
Lateran Council. One of the great medieval popes, he issued many decretals, established the procedure for canonizing saints, inaugurated the two-thirds rule for papal elections, protected the universities, and was one of the most distinguished champions of ecclesiastical independence in the Middle Ages. He was succeeded by Lucius III.
See biography by Cardinal Boso (tr. 1973) and R. Somerville and K. Pennington, Law, Church, and Society, (1977).
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Alexander III, 1845-94, czar of Russia (1881-94), son and successor of
Alexander II. Factors that contributed to Alexander's reactionary policies included his father's assassination, his limited intelligence and education, his military background, and the influence of such advisers as Konstantin P.
Pobyedonostzev and Mikhail N. Katkov. On his accession he discarded the modest proposals for reform made by Count
Loris-Melikov. Alexander increased the repressive powers of the police and tightened censorship and control of education. He limited the power of the
zemstvos [local assemblies] and the judiciary, increased controls over the peasantry, subjected the national minorities to forcible Russification, and persecuted all religious minorities, especially the Jews. Perhaps the only enlightened policy of Alexander's reign was pursued by his energetic minister of finance, Count
Witte, who used governmental pressure and investments to stimulate industrial development and to begin construction of the
Trans-Siberian RR. The czar and his foreign minister, Nikolai K.
Giers, worked for peace in Europe, although Russian expansion in Central Asia almost led to conflict with Great Britain. In the Balkans, Russia's attempts to make Bulgaria a satellite proved unsuccessful and led to a final break with Austria-Hungary, which also had interests there. The Three Emperors' League of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Germany was replaced (1887) with a Russo-German alliance. This was not renewed in 1890, and a Franco-Russian entente grew after 1891 (see
Triple Alliance and Triple Entente). Alexander was succeeded by his son
Nicholas II.
See studies by C. Lowe (1972) and H. W. Whelan (1982).
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Alexander III, king of Macedon: see
Alexander the Great.
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Alexander III, 1241-86, king of Scotland (1249-86), son and successor of
Alexander II. He married a daughter of
Henry III of England and quarreled with Henry, and later Henry's son
Edward I, over the old English claims to overlordship in Scotland. The great achievement of Alexander was his final acquisition for Scotland of the Hebrides and of the Isle of Man, which his father had already claimed from Norway. King Haakon IV of Norway attempted to drive the Scots from the islands, but a storm battered his ships, and he was defeated in the battle of Largs in the Clyde river. In 1266, Alexander signed a treaty with Magnus VI, assigning the islands to Scotland. Alexander survived his children, and when he died his only near relative was his little granddaughter
Margaret Maid of Norway.
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Alexander II, 1818-81, czar of Russia (1855-81), son and successor of
Nicholas I. He ascended the throne during the Crimean War (1853-56) and immediately set about negotiating a peace (see
Paris, Congress of). Influenced by Russia's defeat in the war and by peasant unrest Alexander embarked upon a modernization and reform program. The most important reform was the emancipation of the serfs (1861; see
Emancipation, Edict of). This failed, however, to meet the land needs of the newly freed group and created many new problems. In 1864, a system of limited local self-government was introduced (see
zemstvo) and the judicial system was partially Westernized. Municipal government was overhauled (1870), universal military training was introduced (1874), and censorship and control over education were temporarily relaxed. In Poland, Alexander initially adopted a moderate policy, granting the subject nation partial autonomy. When revolt broke out in 1863, however, Alexander reacted with brutal suppression, imposing severe Russification. The Western powers were sharply warned against interference. Prussia's support of Russia during this diplomatic crisis led to a Russo-Prussian rapprochement, and in 1872 the
Three Emperors' League was formed by Russia, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary. Throughout his reign Alexander promoted vigorous expansion in the East. The conquest of the Ussuri region in East Asia was confirmed by the Treaty of Beijing (1860) with China. Central Asia was added to Russia by the conquest of Kokand, Khiva, and Bokhara (1865-76). Alaska, however, was sold (1867) to the United States. In 1877-78 Russia waged war on Turkey, ostensibly to aid the oppressed Slavs in the Balkans (see
Russo-Turkish Wars). Meanwhile, in domestic affairs, Alexander's reforms, while outraging many reactionaries, were regarded as far too moderate by the liberals and radicals. Radical activities increased sharply among the intelligentsia, resulting in a reassertion of repressive policies. When the populist, or "to the people," movement arose in the late 1860s (see
narodniki), the government arrested and prosecuted hundreds of students. Many radicals responded with terrorist tactics. In 1881, after several unsuccessful attempts, a member of the People's Will, a terrorist offshoot of the populist movement, assassinated Alexander with a hand-thrown bomb; this on the very day (Mar. 13) that Alexander had signed a decree granting the zemstvos an advisory role in legislation. He was succeeded by his son
Alexander III.
See studies by D. Footman (1974) and D. Lieven (1989).
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Alexander II, 1198-1249, king of Scotland (1214-49), son and successor of William the Lion. He joined the English barons in their revolt against King John of England in 1215. Though he made his peace with John's successor, Henry III, in 1221, there was later friction that almost led to war. In 1237, Alexander agreed to give up his claims to overlordship in old Northumbria and to exchange lands he held in central England for lands in the north. At home Alexander was firm in quelling disorder.
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Alexander I, 1777-1825, czar of Russia (1801-25), son of
Paul I (in whose murder he may have taken an indirect part). In the first years of his reign the liberalism of his Swiss tutor, Frédéric César de
La Harpe, seemed to influence Alexander. He suppressed the secret police, lifted the ban on foreign travel and books, made attempts to improve the position of the serfs, and began to reform the backward educational system. In 1805, Alexander joined the coalition against
Napoleon I, but after the Russian defeats at Austerlitz and Friedland he formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon's
Continental System. Alexander requested M. M.
Speranski to draw up proposals for a constitution, but adopted only one aspect of Speranski's scheme, an advisory state council, and dismissed him in 1812 to placate the nobility. During this period Russia gained control of Georgia and parts of Transcaucasia as a result of prolonged war with Persia (1804-13) and annexed (1812) Bessarabia after a war with Turkey (1806-12). Relations with France deteriorated, and Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812. Alexander's defeat of the French made him one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. At first his foreign policy was liberal, but from 1812 on, Alexander was preoccupied by a vague, mystical Christianity, which contributed to his increasing conservatism. Under the influence of the pietistic Juliana
Krüdener and others, he created the
Holy Alliance to uphold Christian morality in Europe. Viewing revolutionary movements as challenging to the authority of legitimate Christian monarchs, the czar now supported
Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements. Alexander's religious fervor was partly responsible for the establishment of military colonies, which were agricultural communities run by peasant soldiers. Intended to better the lot of the common soldier, the colonies became notorious for the regimentation and near-serfdom imposed on the soldiers. Alexander abrogated many of his earlier liberal efforts. His policies caused the formation of secret political societies, and when Alexander's brother
Nicholas I succeeded him the societies led an abortive revolt (see
Decembrists). After Alexander's death, rumors persisted that he escaped to Siberia and became a hermit. His tomb was opened (1926) by the Soviet government and was found empty; the mystery remains unsolved. In Alexander's reign St. Petersburg became a social and artistic center of Europe. Ivan
Krylov and Aleksandr
Pushkin dominated the literary scene. An excellent picture of Alexander's period is found in Leo Tolstoy's
War and Peace.See biographies by A. Palmer (1974) and H. Troyat (1986); study by C. Cate (1985).
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Alexander I, 1078?-1124, king of Scotland (1107-24), son of Malcolm III and St. Margaret of Scotland. He succeeded his brother Edgar, who had divided the kingdom so that Alexander ruled only N of the Forth and Clyde rivers, while his brother David ruled in the south. Early in his reign he decisively quelled an uprising in N Scotland. Like his mother, Alexander encouraged ecclesiastical conformity with English ways and established several monasteries, including the abbeys at Inchcolm and Scone. David succeeded him as David I.
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Alexander City, city (1990 pop. 14,917), Tallapoosa co., E central Ala., in a piedmont farm area; inc. 1874. Nearby Martin Dam supplies power for the city's textile mills; the dam also has created Lake Martin, a superb recreational area. Close by is Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (see
National Parks and Monuments, table), site of a battle (1814) between the forces of the Native American Creeks and Andrew
Jackson.
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Alexander Bay, town, Northern Cape, NW South Africa, where the Orange River enters the Atlantic Ocean; site of some of the world's richest alluvial diamond deposits.
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Alexander Balas, d. 145 B.C., ruler of Syria, putative son of Antiochus IV. He seized power from his uncle Demetrius I (c.152 B.C.); Jonathan the Maccabee supported him. He died in battle against Ptolemy Philometor.
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Alexander Archipelago, island group off SE Alaska. The islands are the exposed tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep, fjordlike channels separate the islands and cut them off from the mainland; the northern part of the
Inside Passage threads its way among the islands. The largest islands are Chichagof, Admiralty, Baranof,
Wrangell, Revillagigedo, Kupreanof, Mitkoff, and
Prince of Wales. All the islands are rugged, densely forested, and have an abundance of wildlife. The Tlingit are native to the area.
Ketchikan on Revillagigedo and
Sitka on Baranof are the main centers of population. Lumbering, trapping, fishing, and canning are the main industries. The archipelago was visited by the Russians in 1741 and was later explored by Britain, Spain, and the United States.
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Alexander, 1893-1920, king of the Hellenes (1917-20), second son of
Constantine I. After his father's forced abdication, he succeeded to the Greek throne with the support of the Allies, who distrusted the sympathies of his elder brother George (later King
George II). Alexander died of a monkey bite. His father, Constantine I, was restored to the throne shortly afterward.
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Alexander (Alexander Obrenović), 1876-1903, king of Serbia (1889-1903), son of King
Milan. He succeeded on his father's abdication. Proclaiming himself of age in 1893, he took over the government, abolished (1894) the relatively liberal constitution of 1889, and restored the conservative one of 1869. He recalled his father in 1897, gave him command of the army, and permitted him to undertake a campaign against the pro-Russian Radical party. In 1900 he married Draga Mašin, the widow of a foreign engineer and a former lady-in-waiting (see
Draga). The scandal of the marriage exasperated his opposition. In 1903, after Alexander had arbitrarily suspended and then restored the new liberal constitution that he had granted in 1901, he and his queen were assassinated by a clique of officers. Peter Karadjordjević was recalled as King
Peter I, and the
Obrenović dynasty came to an end.
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Alexander, 1888-1934, king of Yugoslavia (1921-34), son and successor of
Peter I. Of the Karadjordjević family, he was educated in Russia and became crown prince of Serbia upon the renunciation (1909) of the succession by his brother George. He led Serbian forces in the Balkan War of 1912, became regent in June, 1914, led the Serbian army in World War I, and became (Dec., 1918) regent of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). In 1922 he married Princess Marie of Romania. After his accession increasing disorder arose from the Croatian autonomy movement. After the assassination (1928) of Stjepan
Radić, the Croat Peasant party leader, Alexander in 1929 dismissed the parliament, abolished the constitution and the parties, and became absolute ruler. To emphasize the unity he hoped to give the country, he changed (Oct., 1929) its official name to Yugoslavia. Although he announced the end of the dictatorship in 1931 and proclaimed a new constitution, he kept power in his own hands. His authoritarian and centralizing policy brought him the hatred of the separatist minorities, particularly the Croats and Macedonians, as well as the opposition of Serbian liberals. In foreign policy he was loyal to the French alliance and to the
Little Entente. In 1934 he debarked at Marseilles on a state visit to France. A member of a Croatian separatist organization fired on his car, assassinating the king and fatally wounding the French foreign minister, Louis
Barthou. Alexander was succeeded by his young son,
Peter II.
See study by S. Graham (1939, repr. 1972).
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Alexander (Alexander of Battenberg), 1857-93, prince of Bulgaria (1879-86); second son of Prince Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt and nephew of
Alexander II of Russia. He served in the Russian army against the Turks (1877-78) and, backed by the Rus sian czar, was elected hereditary prince of Bulgaria under Turkish suzerainty. In 1885 the revolutionaries in Eastern
Rumelia, also known as Southern Bulgaria, proclaimed the union of that province with Bulgaria. Alexander accepted the union, thus incurring the wrath of the Russian czar and Serbia. The latter declared war. Alexander was victorious and by an agreement with Turkey became governor of Eastern Rumelia, but he was forced to abdicate by a group of officers. He became an Austrian officer, and
Ferdinand was elected to succeed him as prince.
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Alexander (Alexander Karadjordjević), 1806-85, prince of Serbia (1842-58), son of
Karageorge (Karadjordje). He was elected to succeed the deposed
Michael of Serbia. Weak and vacillating, he did not send troops to aid the Slavic minorities in Hungary during the revolution of 1848-49. He later submitted to Turkish and Austrian pressure in withholding his support from Russia in the Crimean War of 1854-56. Discontent with his ineffective government finally led his subjects to depose him and to recall
Miloš as king. In 1868, Alexander was condemned to death in absentia by a Serbian court for his alleged part in the assassination of Michael, who had succeeded Miloš. Alexander was the father of
Peter I of Yugoslavia.
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Alexander, in the Bible.
1 Kinsman of Annas.
2 Son of Simon of Cyrene, probably a Christian.
3 Heretic condemned by Paul.
4 Coppersmith who did Paul harm.
5 Jew who tried to speak during a riot at Ephesus. The last three may be the same man. The Alexanders in the books of the Maccabees are Alexander the Great and
Alexander Balas.
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Alexander, in Greek mythology: see
Paris.
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Alesius, Ales, or Aless, Alexander, 1500-1565, Scottish Protestant theologian. As canon of the collegiate church at St. Andrews he tried to reclaim Patrick
Hamilton from his Lutheran views but was himself persuaded to accept the reformed teachings. In 1532 he escaped to the Continent, where he gained the confidence of Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon and joined in signing the Augsburg Confession. He was commended to Henry VIII by them, and arriving in England in 1535, he enjoyed friendly association with Archbishop Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, and others. He lectured on divinity at Cambridge and afterward practiced medicine in London. After Cromwell's fall in 1540, Alesius returned to Germany, where he was professor of theology, first at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and later at Leipzig.
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Ales, Alexander: see
Alesius, Alexander.
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Alekhine, Alexander, 1892-1946, Russian-French chess player, b. Moscow. He became a naturalized French citizen after the Russian Revolution. At the age of 16 he gained the rank of master and in 1927, by a surprising defeat of Capablanca at Buenos Aires, became world champion. In 1930 at San Remo, Italy, he did not lose a single game in a tournament that included all of the major European players. In 1935 he lost the championship to Max Euwe but regained it in 1937 and kept it until his death. His clear and realistic style and the brilliance of his middle-game and end-game combinations are found in his book,
My Best Games of Chess, 1924-1937 (1939).
See study by R. G. Eales and A. H. Williams (1973).
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Albany, Alexander Stuart or Stewart, duke of: see
Stuart, Alexander, duke of Albany.
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Agassiz, Alexander, 1835-1910, American naturalist and industrialist, b. Neuchâtel, Switzerland; son of Louis Agassiz, stepson of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz. He came to the United States in 1849 and studied at Harvard, receiving degrees in engineering (B.S., 1857) and natural history (B.S., 1862). Throughout his life he was connected in various capacities with Harvard. In 1871 he consolidated the Calumet and Hecla copper mines on Lake Superior and, as president, successfully developed the combined interests. He adopted safety and welfare measures relating to the mines. Agassiz contributed much of his fortune to science—chiefly in endowments to Harvard and to the Museum of Comparative Zoology which his father helped to found there. In 1877 he began oceanographic explorations, including detailed observations of the Pacific and the Caribbean. Noting that the deep-sea animals of the two are similar, he suggested that the Caribbean was a bay of the Pacific that had been cut off in the Cretaceous period by the rise of the Panama isthmus. His chief work is
Revision of the Echini (2 vol., 1872-74).
See study by his son G. R. Agassiz (1913).
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(born July 6, 1766, Paisley, Renfrew, Scot.—died Aug. 23, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. ornithologist. In Scotland he wrote poetry while working as a weaver and peddler; in 1792 his satiric works led to a fine and imprisonment. Impoverished, in 1794 he immigrated to the U.S., where he became a teacher. Influenced by William Bartram, he decided circa 1804 to write on North American birds, and he began studying art and ornithology in his leisure time. His pioneering work American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808–14) established him as a founder of the field. After publication of its first volume, he spent much of his time selling subscriptions for the expensive work and collecting specimens for the remaining volumes.
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(born April 16, 1921, London, Eng.—died March 28, 2004, Genolier, Switz.) British actor, director, author, and playwright. He made his professional stage debut at age 17, in which he displayed his talents for vocal mimicry and age affectation, and landed his first major screen role in The Goose Steps Out (1942). His film appearances include Lola Montès (1955), Spartacus (1960, Academy Award), Topkapi (1964, Academy Award), and a recurring role as Hercule Poirot in movies based on Agatha Christie's mysteries, beginning with Death on the Nile (1978). He both starred in and directed Billy Budd (1962), among other films. Lady L (1965), with Sophia Loren and Paul Newman, was probably his best-received directorial effort. He wrote successful plays such as The Love of Four Colonels (1951) and Romanoff and Juliet (1956) and won Emmy Awards for his television performances in The Life of Samuel Johnson (1957), Barefoot in Athens (1966), and A Storm in Summer (1970). Ustinov also wrote several novels and the autobiographical works Dear Me (1977), Ustinov at Large (1993), and Ustinov Still at Large (1994). Noted for his humanitarian efforts, he served as ambassador at large for UNICEF from 1969 until his death. Ustinov was knighted in 1990.
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(born circa 1576, Menstrie, Clackmannan, Scot.—died Feb. 12, 1640, London, Eng.) Scottish poet and colonizer of Canada. He was a member of the court of James I, where he wrote his sonnet sequence Aurora (1604). In 1621 he obtained a grant for territory in North America that he named New Scotland (Nova Scotia), despite French claims to part of the land. He offered baronetcies to Scotsmen who would sponsor settlers, but the region was not colonized until his son established a settlement at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal). Alexander was compelled to surrender the territory under the Treaty of Susa (1629), which ended an Anglo-French conflict. Scottish settlers were ordered to withdraw by 1631.
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(born Feb. 11, 1812, Wilkes county, Ga., U.S.—died March 4, 1883, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843–59), where he defended slavery but opposed dissolution of the Union. When Georgia seceded, he was elected vice president of the Confederacy. He supported constitutional government, opposed attempts by Jefferson Davis to infringe on individuals' rights, and advocated a program of prisoner exchanges. He led the delegation to the Hampton Roads Conference (1865). After the war he was held in Boston for five months. He served again in the House (1873–82) and as governor of Georgia (1882–83).
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(born June 15, 1916, Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.—died Feb. 9, 2001, Pittsburgh, Pa.) U.S. social scientist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1943. At Carnegie-Mellon University (from 1949), he taught psychology and later computer science. In Administrative Behavior (1947) Simon argued for recognizing a multiplicity of factors (including psychological ones) in corporate decision making rather than emphasizing the achievement of maximum profits as the primary motivation. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978. He subsequently worked in the field of artificial intelligence using computer technology.
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(born May 5, 1846, Wola Okrzejska, Pol.—died Nov. 15, 1916, Vevey, Switz.) Polish novelist. In 1869 he began to publish critical works showing the influence of positivism. He worked as a newspaperman and published successful short stories before producing the great trilogy consisting of With Fire and Sword (1884), The Deluge (1886), and Pan Michael (1887–88). Describing Poland's struggles against Cossacks, Tatars, Swedes, and Turks, the novels stress Polish heroism in a vivid style of epic clarity and simplicity. The widely translated Quo Vadis? (1896), set in Rome under Nero, established his international reputation. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905.
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in full
Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander orig.
Gessius Bassianus Alexianus(born circa AD 209, Phoenicia—died 235, Gaul) Roman emperor (222–235). At age 14 he succeeded Elagabalus, who had been murdered by the Praetorian Guard. Severus's mother and grandmother both held real power during his reign. A council of senators gave nominal ruling power to the Senate. Civil lawlessness reigned, and Severus's military incompetence led to defeat by the Persians, though their heavy losses forced them to withdraw from Mesopotamia. When he bought peace from the invading Germanic Alemanni, his indignant soldiers murdered him and his mother.
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(born June 8, 1810, Zwickau, Saxony—died July 29, 1856, Endenich, near Bonn, Prussia) German composer. Son of a bookseller, he considered becoming a novelist. Under family pressure he reluctantly entered law school, but he devoted his time to song composition and piano lessons. An injury to one of his fingers put an end to his hopes of a career as a virtuoso and confined him to composition. He embarked upon a prolific period, writing piano pieces and founding, in 1834, the New Journal for Music. His works from this fertile period include Papillons, Carnaval (both 1833–35), and Davidsbündlertänze (1837). He married the pianist Clara Wieck in 1840. That year he returned to the field of the solo song; in the span of 11 months he composed nearly all the songs on which much of his reputation rests, such as the song cycles Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe und Leben. The next year he widened his scope to orchestral music, producing Symphony No. 1, Symphony No. 4, and his piano concerto; in 1842 he concentrated on chamber music. In his last productive years, he turned to dramatic or semidramatic works. His mental deterioration (probably associated with both syphilis and a family history of mental illness) accelerated; in 1854 he was placed in a sanatorium, where he died two years later.
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Alexander Pope, portrait by Thomas Hudson; in the National Portrait Gallery, London
(born May 21, 1688, London, Eng.—died May 30, 1744, Twickenham, near London) English poet and satirist. A precocious boy precluded from formal education by his Roman Catholicism, Pope was mainly self-educated. A deformity of the spine and other health problems limited his growth and physical activities, leading him to devote himself to reading and writing. His first major work was
An Essay on Criticism (1711), a poem on the art of writing that contains several brilliant epigrams (e.g., “To err is human, to forgive, divine”). His witty mock-epic
The Rape of the Lock (1712, 1714) ridicules fashionable society. The great labour of his life was his verse translation of
Homer's
Iliad (1720) and
Odyssey (1726), whose success made him financially secure. He became involved in many literary battles, prompting him to write poems such as the scathing mock-epic
The Dunciad (1728) and
An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735). The philosophical
An Essay on Man (1733–34) was intended as part of a larger work that he never completed.
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(born May 4, 1872, Moosehead, Pa., U.S.—died May 11, 1936, Washington, D.C.) U.S. politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1909 to 1915 and helped secure the Democratic Party presidential nomination for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Appointed U.S. attorney general (1919–21), Palmer used the espionage and sedition acts (1917, 1918) to attack political radicals, dissidents, and aliens in the “Red Scare” period following World War I. The government-led roundup of suspected communists became known as the “Palmer raids.” In 1920 he ran unsuccessfully for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
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(born circa 1759—died Feb. 17, 1793, Pensacola, Fla.) Principal chief of the Creek Indians in the years following the American Revolution. Of French and Creek descent, he was tutored by whites in Charleston, S.C., before being made a Creek chief. Distrustful of American land speculators, he signed a treaty (1784) with the Spanish in Florida putting the Creek under Spain's protection. After repeated U.S. entreaties, he agreed to American sovereignty over Creek lands as long as the Creek could remain there free of American encroachments.
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(born 1755?, Stornoway, Lewis and Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scot.—died March 11, 1820, near Pitlochry, Perth) Scottish-born Canadian explorer. Immigrating to Canada as a young man, he entered a fur-trading firm in 1779. In 1788 he set up a trading post, Fort Chipewyan, on Lake Athabasca. From there he began an expedition (1789) that followed the Mackenzie River from Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean. In 1793 he journeyed from Fort Chipewyan through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, thereby becoming the first European to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico.
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(born Jan. 28, 1822, Logierait, Perth, Scot.—died April 17, 1892, Toronto, Ont., Can.) Scottish-born Canadian politician, first Liberal prime minister of Canada (1873–78). He emigrated to Canada West (now Ontario) in 1842. In 1852 he became editor of a local Liberal newspaper and befriended George Brown, leader of the Reform Party. When the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, Mackenzie was elected to the House of Commons, where he led the Liberal opposition. As prime minister, his efforts at renewed reciprocity with the U.S. failed to address economic concerns, and his government was defeated in 1878. He resigned as leader of the opposition but held a seat in Parliament until his death.
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(born Jan. 11, 1815, Glasgow, Scot.—died June 6, 1891, Ottawa, Ont., Can.) Canadian politician, first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada (1867–73, 1878–91). He immigrated to Canada as a child and practiced law in Kingston, Upper Canada (now Ontario), from 1836. From 1844 to 1854 he served in the Province of Canada's assembly. He cofounded the Liberal-Conservative Party (see Progressive Conservative Party of Canada) in 1854 and became premier of the Province of Canada in 1857. He worked for confederation and helped secure passage of the British North America Act, which created the Dominion of Canada (1867). As prime minister, he supported trade protectionism and aided the completion of the Pacific railway. In response to later challenges to Canadian unity, he advocated loyalty to the British Commonwealth and independence from the U.S.
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orig.
Edward Alexander McDowell(born Dec. 18, 1860, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 23, 1908, New York City) U.S. composer. He started piano lessons at age eight. While in Germany for further study, he impressed the composer Joachim Raff (1822–82), who urged him to write a piano concerto (1882), then introduced him to Franz Liszt, who assisted MacDowell with performances and publication. In 1888 he returned to the U.S. with his wife, and in 1896 he became Columbia University's first professor of music. Paresis made him unable to perform or compose after 1904, and he lapsed into insanity and died at age 47. His farm in Peterborough, N.H., became the MacDowell Colony for artists after his death. His most popular works are the Second Piano Concerto in D Minor (1886), the Second Orchestral (“Indian”) Suite (1895), and piano sets such as Woodland Sketches (1896) and Sea Pieces (1898).
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(born Feb. 18, 1849, Stavanger, Nor.—died April 6, 1906, Bergen) Norwegian novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist. Kielland, who was born into an aristocratic family, took a degree in law in 1871 and was a businessman for almost a decade. After a trip to Paris, he began to write. His first book of short stories was published in 1879, and he soon became dedicated to social reform. His influential novels include Garman and Worse (1880) and Skipper Worse (1882), both of which are set in and around Stavanger. He was perhaps the foremost prose stylist of his day, and, together with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, and Jonas Lie, he is considered one of the “big four” of 19th-century Norwegian literature.
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Alexander Hamilton, detail of an oil painting by John Trumbull; in the National Gallery of Art, elipsis
(born Jan. 11, 1755/57, Nevis, British West Indies—died July 12, 1804, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. statesman. He first came to the U.S. in 1772, arriving in New Jersey. In the
American Revolution he joined the Continental Army and showed conspicuous bravery at the Battle of Trenton (
see Battles of Trenton and Princeton). He served as aide-de-camp to Gen.
George Washington (1777–81); fluent in French, he became a liaison with French commanders. After the war he practiced law in New York. At the
Continental Congress, he argued for a strong central government. As a delegate to the
Annapolis Convention in 1786, he drafted the address that led to the
Constitutional Convention. With
James Madison and
John Jay, he wrote an influential series of essays, later known as the
Federalist papers, in defense of the new Constitution and republican government. Appointed the first secretary of the treasury (1789), Hamilton developed fiscal policies designed to strengthen the national government at the expense of the states. His proposal for a
Bank of the United States was opposed by
Thomas Jefferson but adopted by Congress in 1791. Differences between Hamilton and Jefferson over the powers of the national government and the country's foreign policy led to the rise of political parties; Hamilton became leader of the
Federalist Party, and Madison and Jefferson created the Democratic-Republican Party. Hamilton favoured friendship with Britain and influenced Washington to take a neutral stand toward the French Revolution. In 1796 he caused a rift in the Federalist Party by opposing its nomination of
John Adams for president. In 1800 he tried to prevent Adams's reelection, circulating a private attack that
Aaron Burr, long at odds with Hamilton, obtained and published. When Jefferson and Burr both defeated Adams but received an equal number of electoral votes, Hamilton helped persuade the Federalists in the House of Representatives to choose Jefferson. In 1804 he opposed Burr's candidacy for governor of New York. This affront, coupled with alleged remarks questioning Burr's character, led Burr to challenge Hamilton to a duel, in which Hamilton was mortally wounded.
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(born Sept. 6, 1817, London, Eng.—died Sept. 19, 1893, Montreal, Que., Can.) British-Canadian statesman. He immigrated to Lower Canada (later Quebec) in 1835 and worked for the British-American Land Co., serving as high commissioner from 1844 to 1855. He entered politics in 1849 as an independent member for Sherbrooke county in the legislature of the united province of Canada. He resigned from the legislature in 1850 but was reelected for Sherbrooke town in 1853. He maintained that seat and remained leader of the English-speaking minority until 1872. As finance minister (1858–62, 1864–67), he advocated federation; following the creation of the Dominion of Canada, he became the first finance minister of the Dominion government (1867–68). After retiring from Parliament in 1872, he advocated Canadian independence. From 1880 to 1883 he served as the first Canadian high commissioner in London.
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(born Aug. 6, 1881, Lochfield, Ayr, Scot.—died March 11, 1955, London, Eng.) Scottish bacteriologist. While serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War I, he conducted research on antibacterial substances that would be nontoxic to humans. In 1928 he inadvertently discovered penicillin when he noticed that a mold contaminating a bacterial culture was inhibiting the bacteria's growth. He shared a 1945 Nobel Prize with Ernst Boris Chain and Howard Walter Florey, who both carried Fleming's basic discovery further in isolating, purifying, testing, and producing penicillin in quantity.
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Calder, photograph by Yousuf Karsh, 1966.
(born July 22, 1898, Lawnton, Pa., U.S.—died Nov. 11, 1976, New York, N.Y.) U.S. sculptor. He was the son and grandson of sculptors, and his mother was a painter. He studied mechanical engineering, and in 1923 attended the Art Students League, where he was influenced by artists of the
Ash Can school. In 1924 he contributed illustrations to the
National Police Gazette. In 1926 he moved to Paris and began making toylike animals and circus figures of wood and wire; from these he developed his famous miniature circus. In the 1930s he became well known in Paris and the U.S. for his wire sculptures, as well as for portraits, continuous-line drawings, and abstract, motor-driven constructions. He is best known as the inventor of the
mobile, a forerunner of
kinetic sculpture. He also constructed nonmovable sculptural works known as stabiles. Although Calder's early mobiles and stabiles were relatively small, he increasingly moved toward monumentality in his later works. His art was recognized with many large-scale exhibitions.
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Alexander Graham Bell.
(born March 3, 1847, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Aug. 2, 1922, Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, Can.) Scottish-born U.S. audiologist and inventor. He moved to the U.S. in 1871 to teach the visible-speech system developed by his father, Alexander Melville Bell (1819–1905). He opened his own school in Boston for training teachers of the deaf (1872) and was influential in disseminating these methods. In 1876 he became the first person to transmit intelligible words through electric wire (“Watson, come here, I want you,” spoken to his assistant Thomas Watson). He patented the telephone the same year, and in 1877 he cofounded Bell Telephone Co. With the proceeds from France's Volta Prize, he founded Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., in 1880. His experiments there led to the invention of the photophone (which transmitted speech by light rays), the audiometer (which measured acuteness of hearing), the Graphophone (an early practical sound recorder), and working wax recording media, both flat and cylindrical, for the Graphophone. He was chiefly responsible for founding the journal
Science, founded the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (1890), and continued his significant research on deafness throughout his life.
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(born May 30, 1887, Kiev, Ukr.—died Feb. 25, 1964, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Ukrainian-U.S. sculptor. In 1908 he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts, and he soon became active in radical circles such as the Cubist movement. He began to explore the interplay between interlocking voids and solids and between convex and concave surfaces, forming a sculptural equivalent to Cubist paintings' overlapping planes and, in the process, revolutionizing modern sculpture. About 1912 he introduced the concept of collage in sculpture, and he went on to further defy tradition in his “sculpto-paintings,” works in which he introduced painted colour to the intersecting planes of his sculpture. In 1923 he moved to New York City, where he worked and taught for most of his life.
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or
Alexander III(born 356 BC, Pella, Macedonia—died June 13, 323 BC, Babylon) King of Macedonia (336–323) and the greatest military leader of antiquity. The son of Philip II of Macedonia, he was taught by Aristotle. He soon showed military brilliance, helping win the Battle of Chaeronea at age 18. He succeeded his assassinated father in 336 and promptly took Thessaly and Thrace; he brutally razed Thebes except for its temples and the house of Pindar. Such destruction was to be his standard method, and other Greek states submitted meekly. In 334 he crossed to Persia and defeated a Persian army at the Granicus River. He is said to have cut the Gordian knot in Phrygia (333), by which act, according to legend, he was destined to rule all Asia. At the Battle of Issus in 333, he defeated another army, this one led by the Persian king Darius III, who managed to escape. He then took Syria and Phoenicia, cutting off the Persian fleet from its ports. In 332 he completed a seven-month siege of Tyre, considered his greatest military achievement, and then took Egypt. There he received the pharaohs' double crown, founded Alexandria, and visited the oracle of the god Amon, the basis of his claim to divinity. In control of the eastern Mediterranean coast, in 331 he defeated Darius in a decisive battle at Gaugamela, though Darius again escaped. He next took the province of Babylon. He burnt Xerxes' palace at Persepolis, Persia, in 330, and he envisioned an empire ruled jointly by Macedonians and Persians. He continued eastward, quashing real or imagined conspiracies among his men and taking control to the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers, founding cities (most named Alexandria) to hold the territory. Conquering what is now Tajikistan, he married the princess Roxana and embraced Persian absolutism, adopting Persian dress and enforcing Persian court customs. By 326 he reached the Hyphasis in India, where his weary men mutinied; he turned back, marching and pillaging down the Indus, and reached Susa with much loss of life. He continued to promote his unpopular policy of racial fusion, a seeming attempt to form a Persian-Macedonian master race. When his favourite, Hephaestion (324), died, Alexander gave him a hero's funeral and demanded that divine honours be given at his own funeral. He fell ill at Babylon after long feasting and drinking and died at age 33. He was buried in Alexandria, Egypt. His empire, the greatest that had existed to that time, extended from Thrace to Egypt and from Greece to the Indus valley.
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orig.
Rodrigo de Borja y Doms
Alexander VI, detail of a fresco by Pinturicchio, 1492–94; in the Vatican.
(born 1431, Játiva, Aragon—died Aug. 18, 1503, Rome) Pope (1492–1503). Born into the Spanish branch of the Borgia family, he amassed great wealth and lived scandalously, fathering four illegitimate children (before his election as pope), who played an important role in his complicated dynastic plans. He warred against the Ottoman Turks and forced the French to abandon their effort to seize Naples. The murder of his son Juan (1497) prompted Alexander's short-lived attempt to restrain the corruption of the papal court. His political ambitions, however, were revived with the marriage of his son Cesare, whose military campaigns brought northern Italy under Borgia control. He concluded an alliance with Spain and negotiated the Treaty of
Tordesillas (1494). A patron of the arts, he embellished the Vatican palaces and commissioned
Michelangelo to draw up plans for the rebuilding of
St. Peter's Basilica.
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(born circa 1220, Vladimir, Grand Principality of Vladimir—died Nov. 14, 1263, Gorodets) Prince of Novgorod (1236–52) and Kiev (1246–52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252–63). He fought off invading Swedes in 1240 at the Neva River (resulting in the epithet Nevsky). He was called back to service to defeat the Teutonic Knights in 1242 and also won victories over the Lithuanians and Finns. He collaborated with the Golden Horde in imposing Mongol rule on Russia, and the Great Khan made him grand prince of Vladimir. Alexander continued to rule Novgorod through his son. He helped the Mongols impose taxes, interceding with the Khan to prevent reprisals when rebellions broke out. A national hero, he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox church.
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(born Sept. 2, 1241—died March 18/19, 1286, near Kinghorn, Fife, Scot.) King of Scotland (1249–86). Son of Alexander II, he came to the throne at age 7. In 1251 he was married to Margaret, daughter of England's King Henry III, who sought to gain control over Scotland. In 1255 Alexander was seized by a pro-English party in Scotland; in 1257 the anti-English party gained control of the government until he came of age (1262). In 1263 he repulsed a Norwegian invasion, and in 1266 he acquired the Hebrides and the Isle of Man from Norway. His reign was later viewed as a golden age by Scots caught up in the long conflict with England.
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(born Aug. 24, 1198, Haddington, Lothian—died July 8, 1249, Kerrera Island) King of Scotland (1214–49). He came to the throne on the death of his father, William I (the Lion). In 1215 he supported the rebellious English barons against King John, hoping to regain land in northern England. After the rebellion collapsed (1217), he did homage to Henry III and in 1221 married Henry's sister, Joan. He consolidated royal authority in Scotland and subdued Argyll in 1222. In 1237 he concluded the Peace of York with Henry by which he abandoned his claim to land in England and received in exchange several English estates.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
(born Dec. 4, 1888, Cetinje, Montenegro —died Oct. 9, 1934, Marseille, France) King of Yugoslavia (1921–34). After commanding Serbian forces in World War I, Alexander succeeded his father, Peter I, as king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in 1921. In 1929 he abolished the constitution and established a royal dictatorship. As part of his efforts to unify his subjects, he changed the name of the country to Yugoslavia; outlawed political parties based on ethnic, religious, or regional distinctions; reorganized the state; and standardized legal systems, school curricula, and national holidays. In 1934 he was assassinated by an agent of Croatian separatists.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Group of about 1,100 islands, southeastern Alaska, U.S. Extending southward from Glacier Bay, the chief islands are Chichagof, Admiralty, Baranof, Kupreanof, Prince of Wales, and Revillagigedo. The chief towns are Sitka (on Baranof) and Ketchikan (on Revillagigedo). The islands are separated from the mainland by deep, narrow channels that form part of the Inside Passage. The archipelago's name, given in 1867, honours Tsar Alexander II.
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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.