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The History Channel - Encyclopedia Category: History and Culture > History Date & country: 02/12/2007, UK Words: 25833

Wolcott, Oliver
(1760-1833) US cabinet member and governor. He won the support of Alexander Hamilton, whom he succeeded as secretary of the treasury (1795-1800), but caught between the machinations of his friend Hamilton and...

Wolf, Christa
(1929) German writer. She established her reputation, and earned the approval of the East German government, with her second novel, Der geteilte Himmel/Divided Heaven (1963), in which the heroine decides...

Wolf, Eric R(obert)
(1923) Austrian anthropologist. His work concentrated on peasant cultures and their integration into industrialized societies. Born in Vienna, Austria, he emigrated to the USA in 1940. His academic career...

Wolfe, Charles
(1791-1823) Irish poet. He is remembered for one short poem, `The Burial of Sir John Moore` 1815. He was probably born in Dublin. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was ordained a cleric and became the...

Wolfe, Humbert
(1885-1940) English poet and critic. His volumes of poetry include Humoresque 1926, Requiem 1927, The Uncelestial City 1930, and Kensington Gardens in War Time 1940. Critical works include Notes on English...

Wolfe, James
(1727-1759) English soldier. He served in Canada and commanded a victorious expedition against the French general Montcalm in Québec on the Plains of Abraham, during which both commanders were killed. The...

Wolfe, Thomas Clayton
(1900-1938) US novelist. He is noted for the unrestrained rhetoric and emotion of his prose style. He wrote four long and hauntingly powerful autobiographical novels, mostly of the South:Look Homeward, Angel...

Wolfenden Report
The findings, published in 1957, of a British royal commission on homosexuality and prostitution. The report recommended legalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults of 21 and over, in...

Wolff, Christian
(1679-1754) German philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who invented the terms `cosmology` and `teleology`. He was science adviser to Peter the Great of Russia 1716-25. Wolff worked in many...

Wolfgang, St
(924-994) German Benedictine monk and missionary renowned for his promotion of education. Born in Swabia and educated at the monastery of Reichenau, he joined the Benedictine order at the Swiss monastery of...

Wolfit, Donald
(1902-1968) English actor and manager. He formed his own theatre company in 1937, and excelled in the Shakespearean roles of Shylock and Lear, and Volpone (in Ben Jonson's play). He was knighted in 1957. ...

Wolfowitz, Paul
(1943) US academic and Republican politician, head of the...

Wolfskill, William
(1798-1866) US trapper and California pioneer. Born near Richmond, Kentucky, he trapped along the Rio Grande and became a Mexican citizen in 1830. He pioneered the western Spanish trail from Taos to California...

Wolgemut, Michael
(1434-1519) German painter and engraver. As the head of a large workshop in Nuremberg, he produced many carved and painted altarpieces. He also made woodcut book illustrations. He was the...

Wollaston, John
(lived early 18th century) Portrait painter in colonial North America. He worked in a number of cities. His portraits were in the fashionable and artificial manner of Godfrey Kneller. ...

Wollstonecraft, Mary
(1759-1797) British feminist and writer. She was a member of a group of radical intellectuals called the English Jacobins. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) demanded equal educational...

Wolof
The majority ethnic group living in Senegal. There is also a Wolof minority in Gambia. There are about 2 million speakers of Wolof, a language belonging to the Niger-Congo family....

Wolpoff, Milford H(owell)
(1942) US physical anthropologist. He made extensive studies of fossil hominid evolution, tool-making, and dental variation. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he taught at Case Western Reserve (1968-70)...

Wolsey, Thomas
(c. 1475-1530) English cleric and politician. In Henry VIII's service from 1509, he became archbishop of York in 1514, cardinal and lord chancellor in 1515, and began the dissolution of the monasteries. His...

women, medieval
In the Middle Ages, women played an essential part in the medieval economy and society. However, the post-Conquest period (11th-15th centuries) saw a reduction in the status of women in certain...

Women's Land Army
In Britain, organization founded in 1916 for the recruitment of women to work on farms during World War I. At its peak in September 1918 it had 16,000 members. It re-formed June in 1939, before...

women's services
The organized military use of women on a large scale, a 20th-century development. First, women replaced men in factories, on farms, and in noncombat tasks during wartime; they are now found in...

Women's Social and Political Union
British political movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst to organize a militant crusade for female suffrage. In 1909, faced with government indifference, the WSPU embarked on a campaign of...

women's suffrage
Women's right to vote in elections. After a prolonged struggle women were finally given the right to vote on equal terms with men in 1920 in the USA and in 1928 in Britain. Women's suffrage was...

women's theatre
Movement promoting theatrical production by women about women's lives. It was pioneered by the It's All Right To Be A Woman theatre company in the USA in 1970 with the Women's Project, founded in...

Wood, (Henry) Evelyn
(1838-1919) English soldier who became commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army in 1883 after the British had established a protectorate over the country. Wood was born at Cressing, Essex, and educated at...

Wood, (Howard) Kingsley
(1881-1943) English Conservative politician who served in the governments of Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s, and was chancellor of the Exchequer (1940-43) in...

Wood, Anthony
(1632-1695) English antiquary. Inspired by William Dugdale'sAntiquities of Warwickshire 1656, he wrote History and Antiquities of the University of...

Wood, Beatrice
(1893-1998) US ceramist. Born in San Francisco, California, after art study at Académie Julian in Paris, France, she returned in 1914 to New York, New York, where...

Wood, Benjamin
(1820-1900) US journalist. He was controversial because of his support for the Confederate cause in the American Civil War. Born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, as editor of the mass-audience New York Daily News...

Wood, Bryce
(1909-1986) US political scientist. Born in Everett, Washington, he promoted research on Latin America as executive associate of the Social Science Research Council (1949-73) while himself writing such...

Wood, Edith Elmer
(1871-1945) US housing reformer. As lobbyist, writer, and government consultant, she helped define New Deal housing policy. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after graduating from Smith College in 1890, she...

Wood, Fernando
(1812-1881) US representative, mayor, and businessman. His political career was noted for widespread accusations of corruption as part of the...

Wood, Grant
(1892-1942) US painter. A distinguished Regionalist and painter of the Wood, John, the Elder
(c. 1705-1754) English architect. He was known as `Wood of Bath` because of his many works in that city. His plan to restore the Roman character of Bath in strict Palladian style was only partially realized....

Wood, Leonard
(1860-1927) US soldier and physician. Born in Winchester, New Hampshire, after graduating from Harvard medical school in 1884, he participated in the campaign against the American Indian chief Geronimo in 1886,...

Wood, Mrs Henry
(1814-1887) English novelist who was a pioneer of the regional novel of realism. Her works include the melodramatic East Lynne (1861), a novel of middle-class life that sold over half a million copies; it was...

Woodberry, G(eorge) E(dward)
(1855-1930) US literary critic. Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, he was an inspiring teacher at Columbia University (1891-1904) and elsewhere. He wrote essays, notably Heart of Man (1899), and biographies of...

Woodbury, Levi
(1789-1851) US cabinet member and Supreme Court justice. Born in Francestown, New Hampshire, he served as a New Hampshire Superior Court judge (1817-23), as governor (1823-24), and in the US Senate for New...

woodcarving
Art form practised in many parts of the world since prehistoric times: for example, the northwestern Pacific coast of North America, in the form of totem poles, and West Africa, where there is a...

Woodcock, George
(1904-1979) English trade union leader, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), 1960-69. During the Labour administrations of Harold Wilson in the 1960s and 1970s, when trade union influence in...

Woodcraft Folk
British name for the youth organization founded in the USA as the Woodcraft League by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1902, with branches in many countries. Inspired by the Scouts, it differs in that it is...

woodcut
Print made by a woodblock in which a picture or design has been cut in relief. Areas that are intended to be white are cut away leaving the raised remainder to catch and transfer the ink, which is...

Woodforde, James
(1740-1803) British cleric who held livings in Somerset and Norfolk, and whose diaries 1758-1802 form a record of rural England. ...

Woodhenge
Neolithic (New Stone Age) monument 4 km/2.5 mi northeast of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England. The structure is composed of six concentric circles of wooden posts, the outermost being 40 m/130 ft in...

Woodhull and Claflin
US spiritualists, entrepreneurs, and activists. In 1868 Victoria claimed that she was visited by a spirit who told her to go to New York, New York, and the whole family followed her there. The...

Woods, Margaret Louisa
(1856-1945) English novelist and poet. Her realistic novel A Village Tragedy 1887 showed a rare maturity, while Lyrics and Ballads 1889 revealed her gifts as a poet. Her Collected Poems appeared 1914. ...

Woods, William Burnham
(1824-1887) US Supreme Court justice. Born in Newark, Ohio, he served in the Union Army and fought in several major American Civil War battles, earning the rank of brigadier general. He was appointed a US...

Woodson, Carter G(odwin)
(1875-1950) US historian and educator. He created widespread public interest in black history, laying the groundwork for the later development of black American studies. Born in New Canton, Virginia,...

Woodville, Elizabeth
(1437-1492) Queen consort of Edward IV. She married Edward 1464 when she was already a widow with children. She was unpopular because of her Lancastrian links and her advancement of her own family. After...

Woodward, (Ernest) Llewellyn
(1890-1971) English historian. An expert in international relations and British foreign policy, he held professorships in both England and the USA. Woodward was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and Corpus...

Woodward, Bob
(1943) US journalist. He is best known for unmasking, with Carl Bernstein, the Watergate scandal and cover-up. Born in Geneva, Illinois, he was a Washington Post reporter 1971-78, and metropolitan...

Woodward, C(omer) Vann
(1908-1999) US historian. As a historian who believed that accurate knowledge of the past can contribute to social change, in later years he increasingly brought his authority and knowledge to expressing his...

Woodward, Henry
(c. 1646-c. 1686) British settler, agent, and pioneer. His birthplace is unknown, possibly Barbados. He went to the settlement near Cape Fear (present-day North Carolina) in 1664, but was captured in 1666 and held...

Wookey Hole
Natural cave near Wells, Somerset, England, in which flint implements of Old Stone Age people and bones of extinct animals have been found. ...

Wool, John Ellis
(1784-1869) US soldier. Born in Newburgh, New York, he raised a company of volunteers in Troy, New York, in the War of 1812 and fought so well that he was commissioned a colonel in the regular army in 1816 and...

Woolf, (Adeline) Virginia
(1882-1941) English novelist and critic. In novels such as Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Waves (1931), she used a `stream of consciousness` technique to render inner experience. In...

Woollcott, Alexander Humphreys
(1887-1943) US theatre critic and literary figure. He was theatre critic for the The New York Times 1914-22, a regular contributor to The New Yorker from its inception in 1925, and hosted the radio interview...

Woollett, William
(1735-1785) British engraver. In 1775 he was appointed engraver to George III. ...

Woolley, (Charles) Leonard
(1880-1960) English archaeologist. After taking part in an expedition to Nubia 1907-11, he excavated the Hittite city of Carchemish...

Woolner, Thomas
(1825-1892) English sculptor and poet. He was an original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and wrote poems for the Germ, a short-lived Pre-Raphaelite literary journal. His statues and portrait...

Woolrich, Cornell
(1903-1968) US writer of suspense fiction. He also wrote under the names William Irish and George Hopley (his middle names). His stories are marked by a bleak, alienated despair and create a sinister, nightmare...

woolsack
In the UK, the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords. The woolsack is a large square bag of wool, with a backrest but no arms, covered with red cloth. It is traditionally held to have...

Wootton, John
(1686-1765) English painter. He produced hunting and racing scenes. He was an early English follower of Claude Lorrain in landscape, his work being one of the minor sources from which Thomas Gainsborough's...

Worcester, Battle of
In the English Civil War, final victory of Oliver...

Worcester, Joseph E(merson)
(1784-1865) US lexicographer. His most important work is the Dictionary of the English Language (1860), which reflects traditional British style in contrast to Noah Webster's recognition of US vocabulary,...

Worde, Wynkyn de
(died c. 1535) French-born English printer. Sometime before 1476, he moved to England from Alsace-Lorraine and became an assistant to the printer William Caxton. After Caxton's death in 1491, he took over the...

Worden, John Lorimer
(1818-1897) US naval officer. Born in Westchester County, New York, he commanded the new ironclad USS Monitor in its epic but indecisive battle with the CSS Virginia in 1862; he was temporarily blinded during...

Wordie, James Mann
(1889-1962) British scientist and explorer. He was geologist and chief of scientific staff to Shackleton's Antarctic expedition of 1914-16, and led expeditions to Spitsbergen, Greenland, Jan Mayen Island, and...

Wordsworth, Christopher
(1807-1885) English churchman and writer. He was the author of `Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost` and numerous other hymns, and his writings include commentaries on the Greek New Testament, 1856-60, and the...

Wordsworth, Dorothy
(1771-1855) English writer. She was the only sister of William Wordsworth and lived with him (and later his wife) as a companion and support from 1795 until his death. Her journals (of which only a small...

Wordsworth, William
(1770-1850) English poet. A leader of Romanticism, Wordsworth is best known as the poet who reawakened his readers to the beauty of nature, describing the emotions and perceptive insights which natural beauty...

Work and Pensions, Department for
UK government department formed in June 2001, superseding the former Department of Social Security (DSS) and incorporating the employment portfolio of the former Department for Education and...

Work, Henry Clay
(1832-1884) US printer and composer. He became nationally known, both for his temperance song `Come Home, Father` (1864), and then for his stirring Civil War songs, including the still-sung `Marching...

Workers' Party of Kurdistan
Kurdish guerrilla organization, active in Turkey from 1974. Initially it aimed to secure an independent Kurdish state, Kurdistan, but has since modified its demands, indicating a preparedness to...

workfare
Scheme in which the long-term unemployed, in return for welfare payments, are required to undergo either skills training or work, in jobs supported by state subsidy or in community-service...

workhouse
In the UK, a former institution to house and maintain people unable to earn their own living, established under the ...

working capital
Current assets minus current liabilities of a business organization. It is the assets which are left free, after liabilities have been covered, for the business to use or put to work if it feels...

working capital ratio
Or current ratio ratio of current assets to current liabilities. It is used as an indicator of the solvency of the firm. ...

working class
Term applied to those members of an industrial society who earn their living through manual labour, known in the USA as blue-collar workers. The cultural and political identity of the working...

working men's club
Social club set up in the 19th century to cater for the education and recreation of working men. Today the clubs have few limitations on membership and are entirely social. Educational institutes...

Workman, Fanny
(1859-1925) US explorer and mountain climber. She bicycled through the Mediterranean area and the Middle East, and engaged in exploration, mountain climbing, mapping, and photographing in the Himalayan...

Workmen's Compensation Act
British legislation of 1897 that conferred on workers a right to compensation for the loss of earnings resulting from an injury at work. ...

Works Progress Administration
In US history, a government initiative to reduce unemployment during the Depression (11 million in 1934). Formed 1935, it provided useful work for 8.5 million people during its eight-year...

world city
A city widely recognised as a centre of economic and political power within the capitalist world economy. These cities are important financial and business centres and usually boast a high...

World of Art, The
Russian arts group founded in St Petersburg 1889. Rejecting the realism of 19th-century Russian art, members of the World of Art looked to European movements such as Impressionism, art nouveau,...

World War I
War between the Central European Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and allies) on one side and the ...

World War I alliances
The two opposing groups that fought in World War I were the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey) and the Allies, an alliance that grew from the three members of the...

World War I soldiers
Over 65 million soldiers from over 30 countries fought during World War I, the greatest mobilization the world had ever seen. Initially millions volunteered to fight a war that most...

World War II
War between Germany, Italy, and Japan (the Axis powers) on one side, and Britain, the Commonwealth, France, the USA, the USSR, and China (the Allies) on the other. An estimated 55 million lives were...

Worner, Manfred
(1934-1994) German politician, NATO secretary general 1988-94. He was elected for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to the West German Bundestag (parliament) in 1965 and, as a specialist in...

Worpswede
Village in northern Germany which, during the 1890s, became the centre of a group of artists influenced by the Barbizon School. Paula Modersohn-Becker was its most important member. ...

Worrall, Denis John
(1935) South African politician, member of the white opposition to apartheid. A co-leader of the Democratic Party (DP), he was elected to parliament in 1989. Worrall, a former academic and journalist,...

Worsaae, Jens Jacob Asmussen
(1821-1885) Danish archaeologist. He pioneered the adoption in Europe of the archaeologist Christian Thomsen's Three Age System which divided prehistory into the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Age, and added further...

worship
Adoration and service of God or gods. This service involves reverence, awe, and wonder, and may take many different forms. Worship often takes the form of group participation in rituals, though...

worsted
Stiff, smooth woollen fabric. ...

Worth, Harry
(1920-1989) English comedian and comic actor who was a mainstay on British television in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

Worth, Irene
(1916-2002) US stage actor. Born in Nebraska, she began as a teacher, then made her New York debut in 1943. She performed widely, with praise for her comic and tragic roles in both...

Wotan
German name for the Scandinavian god Odin. ...

Wotton, Henry
(1568-1639) English poet and diplomat under James I. He was provost of Eton College public school 1624-39. His tastes in art and architecture were influenced by his years of service in Venice, and he...