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Wellesley (Massachusetts, United States)
town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S., just west of Boston. Originally part of Dedham, it became the Western Precinct of Needham when that town was set off in 1711. Incorporated as a separate town in 1881, it was named for the estate of Samuel Welles, who had settled the site in 1763. Although some manufacturing appear...
Wellesley College (college, Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States)
private women’s college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S., one of the Seven Sisters schools. A liberal arts college, Wellesley grants bachelor’s degrees in humanities, including Chinese, Japanese, and Russian languages; in ...
Wellesley Islands (islands, Queensland, Australia)
group of islands lying off the northwestern coast of Queensland, Australia, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Sighted in 1644 by the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, they were charted (1802–03) by the British navigator Matthew Flinders ...
Wellesley of Norragh, Richard Colley Wellesley, Marquess (British statesman)
British statesman who, as governor of Madras and governor general of Bengal (both 1797–1805), greatly enlarged the British Empire in India and who, as lord lieutenant of Ireland (1821–28, 1833–34)...
Wellesley, Sir Arthur (prime minister of Great Britain)
British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828–30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle...
Wellesz, Egon Joseph (Austrian musicologist)
Austrian composer and musicologist, highly esteemed as an authority on Byzantine music....
Wellevenskunste, De (work by Coornhert)
His most highly regarded prose work is the moralist tract De wellevenskunste (1586; “The Polite Art”), in which he holds that the true path can be found only through spiritual love....
Wellfleet (Massachusetts, United States)
town (township), Barnstable county, Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the northeastern arm of Cape Cod, 12 miles (19 km) south-southeast of Provincetown. First settled about 1724, it was incorporated in 1763 and gained prominence in the 19th century as a fishing port, having from 1830 to 1870 a virtual monopoly of ...
Wellhausen, Julius (German scholar)
German biblical scholar best known for his analysis of the structure and dating of the Pentateuch....
Wellingborough (New Jersey, United States)
township, Burlington county, western New Jersey, U.S. It lies midway between Camden and Trenton (both in New Jersey) on Rancocas Creek, just upstream from the creek’s mouth in the Delaware River. English Quakers settled there about 1677. The community, which originally included what is now Edgewater Park township, D...
Wellingborough (England, United Kingdom)
town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England, situated east of Northampton along the River Nene. Wellingborough grew as a market town in the Middle Ages. After a fire in 1738, it was rebuilt on its present hill site. Wellin...
Wellingborough (district, England, United Kingdom)
town and borough (district), administrative and historic county of Northamptonshire, England, situated east of Northampton along the River Nene. Wellingborough grew as a market town in the Middle Ages. After a fire in 1738, it was rebuilt on its present hill site. Wellingborough School, founded in 1595, was endowed with revenues from a suppressed medieval guild. Wellingborough’s industries....
wellington (cards)
...may pass or make one bid, which must be higher than all preceding bids. From low to high, the bids are two tricks, three tricks, misère (lose every trick), four tricks, nap (five tricks), wellington (five tricks for doubled stakes), and blücher (five tricks for redoubled stakes). Wellington may only follow a bid of nap and blücher a bid of wellington....
Wellington (region, North Island, New Zealand)
regional council, extreme southern North Island, New Zealand. It includes the cities of Wellington (the national capital) and Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt...
Wellington (England, United Kingdom)
town (“parish”), Taunton Deane district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, just west-southwest of Taunton. The first duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley, who took his title from the town), victor of the ...
Wellington (New Zealand)
capital city, port, and major commercial centre of New Zealand, located in the extreme south of North Island. It lies on the shores and hills surrounding Port Nicholson (Wellington Harbour), an almost landlocked bay that is ranked among the world’s finest harbou...
Wellington (New South Wales, Australia)
town, east-central New South Wales, Australia. It lies at the confluence of the Macquarie and Bell rivers. The site, used by John Oxley as a base for exploration (1817–18), was named by him after the Duke of Wellington. A convict settlement from 1823 to 1831, it was proclaimed a t...
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of (prime minister of Great Britain)
British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828–30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle...
Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of, marquess of Douro, marquess of Wellington, earl of Wellington, Viscount Wellington of Talavera and of Wellington, Baron Douro or Wellesley (prime minister of Great Britain)
British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828–30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808–14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle...
Wellington bomber (airplane)
...engineer before joining the airship (dirigible) department of Vickers Ltd. in 1913 as a designer. Eventually turning to aircraft, he employed his geodetic system in the Royal Air Force’s (RAF’s) Wellington bomber in World War II. His researches into detonation effects led to his inventing the rotating bouncing bomb that, when dropped from an aircraft, skipped over the water and ex...
Wellington Chest (furniture)
...swivel handles, brass angle pieces to protect the corners, and short, turned feet (shaped on a lathe) that could be removed for transport. Perhaps the best-known piece of campaign furniture was the Wellington Chest, named after the 1st Duke of Wellington. It had 6 to 12 drawers of equal depth. The right-hand side of the frame, which overlapped the drawers, was hinged and fitted with a lock....
Wellington Convention (New Zealand [1988])
...political concerns over the commercial exploration and eventual development of such resources if found led, after six years of arduous negotiations, to the June 1988 signing in New Zealand of a new Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities (CRAMRA), also known as the Wellington Convention, by the representatives of 33 nations. CRAMRA was designed to manage the......
Wellington, Frank O. (British inventor)
...southeast of Boston. In 1885, having opened a machine shop in a building on his farm property, he started a new business, the Fore River Engine Company, in partnership with his assistant, Frank O. Wellington. The two partners at first constructed marine engines, and then in 1896 they received their first government contract, for two destroyers. During the following eight years, Watson......
Wellington Harbour (inlet, New Zealand)
inlet of Cook Strait indenting southern North Island, New Zealand. The almost circular bay measures 7 miles (11 km) by 6 miles and covers a total of 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares)...
Wellman, Barry (Canadian sociologist)
...close inspection, the question of what actually defines a community has turned out to be complex: American sociologist George A. Hillery, Jr., compiled 92 different definitions. Canadian sociologist Barry Wellman defined community as “networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity”—and offered empiric...
Wellman, William (American director)
American film director whose more than 80 movies included Hollywood classics of documentary realism....
Wellman, William Augustus (American director)
American film director whose more than 80 movies included Hollywood classics of documentary realism....
Wells (England, United Kingdom)
city, Mendip district, administrative and historic county of Somerset, England, at the foot of the Mendip Hills. The name derives from the many springs rising near the cathedral, which was begun in the 12th century...
Wells, Amos, Junior (American musician)
American blues singer and harmonica player (b. Dec. 9, 1934, Memphis, Tenn.--d. Jan. 15, 1998, Chicago, Ill.), was one of the musicians who introduced electric Chicago blues to international audiences and, from 1965, was one of the most popular of all blues performers. The son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Wells moved in 1946 with his mother to...
Wells, Carolyn (American writer)
prolific American writer remembered largely for her popular mysteries, children’s books, and humorous verse....
Wells Cathedral (cathedral, England, United Kingdom)
...and Lincoln cathedral (c. 1140) once had them. The major displays of English early Gothic sculpture, however, took quite a different form. The chief surviving monument is the west front of Wells cathedral (c. 1225–40), where the sculpture, while comparing reasonably well in style with near-contemporary French developments, is spread across the upper facade and hardly......
Wells, Charles Jeremiah (British writer)
English writer, author (under the pseudonym H.L. Howard) of Joseph and His Brethren: A Scriptural Drama in Two Acts (1823), a long dramatic poem in the style of the Elizabethan dramatists, which enjoyed an immense vogue among the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers after it was praised first by Dant...
Wells, David Ames (American author)
popular American writer on science and economics who, as chairman of the National Revenue Commission, helped to create the U.S. Bureau of Statistics and to establish an empirical basis for taxation in the United States....
Wells, Dee (American writer)
...In 1980 his first wife, Renee Lees, whom he had divorced in 1945, died, and one year later their daughter Valerie died suddenly of Hodgkin disease. In 1982 he divorced his second wife, the writer Dee Wells. His third wife, Vanessa Lawson (formerly married to Nigel Lawson, the chancellor of the Exchequer), died in 1984, leaving him bereft. Suffering from emphysema, he collapsed in 1988 and......
Wells, Dickie (American musician)
leading black American jazz trombonist noted, especially in the big band era, for his melodic creativity and expressive techniques....
Wells, Dicky (American musician)
leading black American jazz trombonist noted, especially in the big band era, for his melodic creativity and expressive techniques....
Wells, E. (British mathematician)
New Testament editions in the 18th century did not question the Textus Receptus (T.R.), despite new manuscript evidence and study, but its limitations became apparent. E. Wells, a British mathematician and theological writer (1719), was the first to edit a complete New Testament that abandoned the T.R. in favour of more ancient manuscripts; and English scholar Richard Bentley......
Wells, Emmeline Blanche Woodward (American religious leader and feminist)
American religious leader and feminist who made use of her editorship of the Mormon publication Woman’s Exponent to campaign energetically for woman suffrage....
Wells Fargo (American corporation)
American financial services company with banks in many states, especially in the West. The founders of the original company were Henry Wells (1805–78) and William George Fargo (1818–81), who had earlier helped establish the American Express Company. They and other investors established Wells, Fargo & Company in March 1852, to handle the ba...
Wells Fargo Bank (American bank)
In 1905 Wells Fargo’s banking operations (in California) were separated from its express operations and merged with the Nevada National Bank (founded 1875) to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. In 1923 this bank merged with the Union Trust Company (founded 1893) to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., a name that was shortened to Wells Fargo Bank in 1954. In 1960 it m...
Wells Gray Provincial Park (park, British Columbia, Canada)
...decline northward and westward, merging with the Interior Plateau near Prince George. They are well mineralized, and gold is mined near Barkerville, which was the centre of a gold rush in the 1860s. Wells Gray and Bowron Lake provincial parks occupy the western slopes, where there is some lumbering and ranching in addition to mining....
Wells, H. G. (British author)
English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds and such comic novels as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly....
Wells, Henry (American businessman)
pioneer American expressman, one of the founders of the American Express Company and of Wells Fargo & Company....
Wells, Herbert George (British author)
English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds and such comic novels as Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly....
Wells, Horace (American dentist)
American dentist, a pioneer in the use of surgical anesthesia....
Wells, Ida Bell (American journalist and social reformer)
African American journalist who led an antilynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s....
Wells, Joseph Morrill (American draftsman)
...called the Shingle style. White designed one of the subtlest of these informally planned structures, the Casino (1881) at Newport, R.I. Subsequently, the partners, aided by their gifted draftsman Joseph Morrill Wells, led the American trend toward Neoclassicism and away from styles then being developed in Chicago and elsewhere....
Wells, Julia Elizabeth (British actress and singer)
English motion-picture, stage, and musical star noted for her crystalline four-octave voice and her charm and skill as an actress....
Wells, Junior (American musician)
American blues singer and harmonica player (b. Dec. 9, 1934, Memphis, Tenn.--d. Jan. 15, 1998, Chicago, Ill.), was one of the musicians who introduced electric Chicago blues to international audiences and, from 1965, was one of the most popular of all blues performers. The son of an Arkansas sharecropper, Wells moved in 1946 with his mother to...
Wells, Kitty (American singer and songwriter)
U.S. country music singer and songwriter. She sang gospel music in church as a child. In the 1930s she made her radio debut and took her name from a Carter family song. She married Johnny Wright in 1937, and they performed together off and on since. Her first major hit was the classic It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Ton...
Wells, Mary (American singer)
...this two-story house became the home of “Hitsville.” Motown’s roster included several successful solo acts, such as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder (a star as both a child and an adult), and Mary Wells. In addition to the Miracles, who notched Motown’s first million-selling single, “Shop Around” (1960), there were several young singing groups, including the ...
Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc. (American company)
American businesswoman who made a mark in advertising during an age when men dominated the field. She cofounded the Wells, Rich, Greene, Inc. (WRG), advertising agency, which became noted for its campaigns for Alka Seltzer (“Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz”), the Ford Motor Company (“Quality Is Job One”), and New York City (“I Love [represented by a heart icon] New......
Wells, Shannon Matilda (American astronaut)
American astronaut who from 1996 to 2007 held the world record for most time in space by a woman and from 1996 to 2002 held the record for the longest-duration spaceflight by any U.S. astronaut....
Wells, William (American musician)
leading black American jazz trombonist noted, especially in the big band era, for his melodic creativity and expressive techniques....
Wells, Willie (American baseball player)
leading black American jazz trombonist noted, especially in the big band era, for his melodic creativity and expressive techniques.......
Wells-Barnett, Ida B. (American journalist and social reformer)
African American journalist who led an antilynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s....
Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell (American journalist and social reformer)
African American journalist who led an antilynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s....
Wellsburg (West Virginia, United States)
city, seat (1797) of Brooke county, in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S. It lies along the Ohio River, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Wheeling, West Virginia, and opposite Brilliant, Ohio. Settled in 1772, it was chartered as Charlestown in 1791 but was renamed in 1816 to honour Alexander Wells, an early settler. Boatyards and w...
Wellstone, Paul David (American politician)
U.S. senator from Minnesota (1991–2002) who was often referred to as the most liberal member of the Senate and who was respected as a man of principle who did not forsake his convictions for political expediency....
Wels (Austria)
city, north-central Austria. It lies along the Traun River at the foothills of the Eastern Alps, southwest of Linz. The site has been occupied since prehistoric times. Wels originated as the Roman Ovilava, capital of Noricum province. In the European Middle Ages it was a leading market town. Notable landmarks include the Led...
wels (fish)
large, voracious catfish of the family Siluridae, native to large rivers and lakes from central Europe to western Asia. One of the largest catfishes, as well as one of the largest of European freshwater fishes, the wels attains a length of about 4.5 m (15 feet) and a weight of 300 kg (660 pounds)....
Welsbach, Carl Auer, Freiherr von (Austrian chemist and engineer)
Austrian chemist and engineer who invented the gas mantle, thus allowing the greatly increased output of light by gas lamps....
Welser family (German bankers)
a son of Lucas Welser, who was one of the first among the Germans to use the sea route to the East that had been discovered by Vasco da Gama. Having amassed great wealth, Antony’s son Bartholomew (1488–1561) lent large sums of money to Charles V and in return received several marks of the imperial favour. Bartholomew and his brother Antony, however, are chiefly known as the promoters...
Welser Messe (Austrian fair)
...windows; and the former imperial castle where the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I died in 1519. A railway junction and important cattle and grain market, the city holds a big annual fair (the Welser Messe). Wels manufactures agricultural machinery, textiles, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, and building materials. It is also an important regional centre of retail and wholesale trade. Pop.......
Welsh Academy (Welsh organization)
...criticism also benefited. The standard set by Y Llenor was maintained in Ysgrifau Beirniadol (“Critical Essays”). In this field as in others, the establishment of the Welsh Academy (Yr Academi Gymreig) in 1959 and the publication of its review Taliesin made an outstanding contribution....
Welsh Arts Council (British organization)
The Welsh Arts Council provides government assistance for literature, art, music, film, and drama. The council helps arrange tours of Wales by British and foreign orchestras and supports art exhibitions, Welsh- and English-language theatre companies and theatres, regional arts associations, and music societies and festivals, particularly those concerned with commissioning new works....
Welsh corgi (dog)
either of two breeds of working dogs developed to handle cattle. They are similar in appearance but are of different origins. Their resemblance results from crosses between the two breeds....
Welsh Folk Museum (museum, Saint Fagans, Wales, United Kingdom)
...following Sweden’s pioneering reerection of significant buildings, include the open-air museums at Arnhem in The Netherlands (the Open Air Museum, opened in 1912) and at Cardiff, Wales (the Welsh Folk Museum, opened in 1947). The preservation and restoration of buildings or entire settlements in situ also began; particularly well known is Colonial Williamsburg, founded in Virginia in......
Welsh Independents, Union of
Welsh-speaking Congregational churches did not join the United Reformed Church but organized separately in the Union of Welsh Independents. These churches grew up originally in the countryside but moved successfully to the developing industrial valleys in the 19th century. The churches have been strong centres of distinctively Welsh culture, and their ministers have often been national leaders.......
Welsh Intermediate Education Act (United Kingdom [1889])
...century, following the franchise reforms of 1867 and 1884, the hegemony of Welsh Liberal Nonconformity was well established. The passing of legislation specifically concerned with Wales, such as the Welsh Intermediate Education Act (1889) and the Church Disestablishment Act (1914), was a parliamentary success matched in cultural life by the founding of three university colleges and the federal....
Welsh language
member of the Brythonic group of the Celtic languages, spoken in Wales. Modern Welsh, like English, makes very little use of inflectional endings; British, the Brythonic language from which Welsh is descended, was, however, an inflecting language like Latin, with word endings marking such ...
Welsh Language Act (Wales [1967])
...it allowed Plaid to turn more of its attention to electoral politics. The party won its first seat in Parliament in a by-election in 1966, and its policies helped to bring about the passage of the Welsh Language Act of 1967 and the establishment of the Welsh Development Agency in 1974. The party also influenced other important changes, including the creation of a Welsh television channel in......
Welsh Language Act (Wales [1993])
...and the establishment of the Welsh Development Agency in 1974. The party also influenced other important changes, including the creation of a Welsh television channel in 1982 and the passage of the Welsh Language Act of 1993. The Welsh Language Board, established under provisions of the 1993 act, promoted the use of the Welsh language and sought to give Welsh equal legal weight with English in....
Welsh Language Society (Welsh organization)
During the 1960s, with the injection of new ideas from younger members, the party broadened its agenda to include pressing social and economic issues. The formation of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 was particularly propitious, because it allowed Plaid to turn more of its attention to electoral politics. The party won its first seat in Parliament in a by-election in 1966, and its policies......
Welsh law
the native law of Wales. Although increasingly superseded by English law after the 13th century, Welsh law has been preserved in lawbooks that represent important documents of medieval Welsh prose....
Welsh literary renaissance
literary activity centring in Wales and England in the mid-18th century that attempted to stimulate interest in the Welsh language and in the classical bardic verse forms of Wales. The movement centred on Lewis, Richard, and William Morris, Welsh scholars who preserved ancient texts and encouraged contemporary poets to use ...
Welsh literature
body of writings in the Welsh language with a rich and unbroken history stretching from the 6th century to the present....
Welsh longbow (weapon)
The longbow evolved during the 12th century in response to the demands of siege and guerrilla operations in the Welsh Marches, a topographically close and economically marginal area that was in many ways similar to the regions in which the crossbow had evolved three centuries earlier. It became the most effective individual missile weapon of western Europe until well into the age of gunpowder......
Welsh main (cockfighting)
...battle royal, in which a number of birds were “set” (i.e., placed in the pit at the same time) and allowed to remain until all but one, the victor, were killed or disabled, and the Welsh main, in which eight pairs were matched, the eight victors paired again, then four, and finally the last surviving pair....
Welsh Nationalist Party (political party, Wales)
political party that has sought self-government for Wales and worked for the protection and promotion of Welsh language, culture, and traditions....
Welsh pony (breed of horse)
breed of small horse popular as a child’s or an adult’s mount. A hardy breed that developed in the Welsh mountains, the Welsh pony was originally used in coal mines. A saddle type was developed by introducing Thoroughbred and Arabian blood. Welsh ponies are about 12 hands (48 inches, or 122 c...
Welsh Rugby Union (sports organization)
breed of small horse popular as a child’s or an adult’s mount. A hardy breed that developed in the Welsh mountains, the Welsh pony was originally used in coal mines. A saddle type was developed by introducing Thoroughbred and Arabian blood. Welsh ponies are about 12 hands (48 inches, or 122 c...
Welsh springer spaniel (breed of dog)
...glossy coat is flat or wavy and usually black and white or liver-coloured and white. The English springer spaniel is valued both as a companion and for its use in the field as a pheasant hunter. The Welsh springer spaniel, known since at least the 14th century, is somewhat smaller than the English; its flat coat is always red-brown and white, with feathering on the chest, legs, and belly. It......
Welsh terrier (breed of dog)
breed of terrier native to Wales, where it has been used as a hunter of foxes, otters, and badgers. The Welsh terrier is a small, Airedale-like dog with a characteristically game and energetic nature. It has a hard, wiry coat, usually black-and-tan, stands about 15 inches (38 cm) high, and weighs about 20 pounds (9 kg). Wide-set eyes and a flat skull give the breed a distinctiv...
Welshpool (Wales, United Kingdom)
town, Powys county, historic county of Montgomeryshire, Wales, in the valley of the River Severn. Its charter, granting market rights, dates from 1263. Lying near the English border, the town showed pro-English sympathies in the Midd...
“Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, Die” (work by Schopenhauer)
...Kantian distinction between appearances and things-in-themselves, or between phenomena and noumena, in order to stress the limitations of reason. In his major philosophical work, The World as Will and Representation (1819), Schopenhauer reiterated Kant’s claim that, given the structure of human cognition, knowledge of things as they really are is impossible; the ...
Welt, Die (German newspaper)
daily newspaper, one of the most influential in Germany and the only one of national scope and stature published in Bonn during that city’s time as West German capital....
Welt ist schön, Die (work by Renger-Patzsch)
...of objects, reflecting his early pursuit of science. He felt that the underlying structure of his subjects did not require any enhancement by the photographer. In his book Die Welt ist schön (1928; “The World Is Beautiful”), he showed images from both nature and industry, all treated in his clear, transparent style. Such images were closely......
“Weltalter, Die” (work by Schelling)
...forms the basis of Schelling’s later philosophy, covering the time from 1810 until his death, which is known only through a draft of the unpublished work Die Weltalter (written in 1811; The Ages of the World) and through the manuscripts of his later lectures. In Die Weltalter Schelling wanted to relate the history of God. God, who originally is absorbed in a quiet......
“Weltbühne, Die” (journal)
...and served throughout World War I. In 1920 he became the society’s secretary in Berlin. Ossietzky helped to found the Nie Wieder Krieg (No More War) organization in 1922 and became editor of the Weltbühne, a liberal political weekly, in 1927, where in a series of articles he unmasked the Reichswehr (German army) leaders’ secret preparations for rearmament. Accused of...
“Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat” (work by Meinecke)
...an admirer of Bismarck and the power state to a moderate liberal who emphasized Humanist values in the German past is reflected in his works. In Weltbürgertum und Nationalstaat (1908; Cosmopolitanism and the National State), he optimistically traced Germany’s emergence from the cosmopolitanism of the 18th century to the nationalism of the 19th. His Idee der Staats...
Weltchronik (work by Rudolf von Ems)
...were not equaled in Rudolf’s other works: Barlaam und Josaphat, a Christian version of the legend of Buddha; and the three historical epics, Alexander, Willehalm von Orlens, and Weltchronik, an ambitious, uncompleted world chronicle that ends with the death of Solomon. The popularity of Rudolf’s writings can be gauged by the fact that there are more than 80 ex...
“Weltgeschichte des jüdischen Volkes, Die” (work by Dubnow)
...various opponents. This work appeared in Geschichte des Chassidismus (1931; “History of Ḥasidism”). The mature fruit of Dubnow’s historical studies is his monumental Die Weltgeschichte des jüdischen Volkes, 10 vol. (1925–30; “The World History of the Jewish People”; Eng. trans. History of the Jews), which was translate...
“Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen” (work by Burckhardt)
...von Italien (1898; “Contributions to the Art History of Italy”). Of particular significance are two later posthumous publications. Weltgeschichtliche Betrachtungen (1905; Force and Freedom: Reflections on History, 1943) epitomizes his philosophy of history. Historische Fragmente (“Historical Fragments,” 1929 in Gesamtausgabe; Jud...
Welti, Emil (Swiss statesman)
statesman, six times president of the Swiss Confederation, and a champion of federal centralization....
Welti, Friedrich Emil (Swiss statesman)
statesman, six times president of the Swiss Confederation, and a champion of federal centralization....
Welting, Ruth (American singer)
American opera singer who was admired for the ease in which she used her lilting soprano to perform for more than 20 years, primarily at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, a wide range of coloratura roles, notably Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, the Queen of the Night in Wolfgang Mozart...
Weltkirche (religion)
Perhaps the most significant change brought about by Vatican II was the beginning of what the German theologian Karl Rahner (1904–1984) called the emergence of the Weltkirche (German: “world church”). Vatican II was not dominated by the churches of Europe and the Americas, the traditional centres of Catholic strength. The ......
Weltpolitik (German history)
...intemperate remarks, William felt keenly his realm’s lack of prestige in comparison with the British Empire. William rejected Bismarck’s emphasis on security in Europe in favour of a flamboyant Weltpolitik (world policy) aimed at making Germany’s presence abroad commensurate with her new industrial might. Where Bismarck considered colonies a dangerous luxury given Ge...
Weltschmerz (Romantic literary concept)
the prevailing mood of melancholy and pessimism associated with the poets of the Romantic era that arose from their refusal or inability to adjust to those realities of the world that they saw as destructive of their right to subjectivity and personal freedom—a phenomenon thought to typify Romanticism. The word was coined by Jean Paul in his pessimistic novel, Selina...