271 résultats pour "19th"
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Richard Wagner
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INTRODUCTION
Richard Wagner (1813-1883), German composer, conductor, and essayist, one of the most influential cultural figures of the 19th century.
May 1864 he was summoned to Munich by the 18-year-old King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who settled Wagner's debts, paid him a generous allowance, and provided himwith housing. Wagner was soon joined in his new home by Cosima von Bülow, Liszt’s daughter and the wife of German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow. Wagnerand Cosima began a relationship that produced three children before the dissolution of the Bülows' marriage in 1870. Mounting hostility toward Wagner by members ofLudwig’s court resulted...
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Expressionism
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INTRODUCTION
Auguste Rodin
Regarded as the foremost sculptor of the 19th and 20th centuries, French artist Auguste Rodin captured both dynamic
movement and inner psychological states.
Improvisation 28 (second version)Improvisation 28 (second version) was painted by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky in 1912. Kandinsky used energeticcolor and form to express the spiritual content of his work. He was also a musician and saw a connection between thevisual arts and music, which he attempted to convey in paintings such as this one.© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris./Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York A new phase of German expressionism called Die Neue...
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Women's Rights.
In 1840 Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton traveled to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention. Upon arrival, however, the women were barred fromparticipating in the conference and forced to sit behind a curtain. This experience of discrimination inspired them to organize the first women’s rights convention. Thisconvention met in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848. The Seneca Falls Convention attracted more than 200 women and approximately 40 men. For theconvention,...
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American Literature: Drama
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INTRODUCTION
American Literature: Drama, literature intended for performance, written by Americans in the English language.
American plays, while still a minority, began to appear in the theater repertory in the 19th century. Although American plays were still styled after British models, theirsubject matter came to be based on specifically American incidents or themes. In the United States as in Britain, many plays reflected the influence of romanticism , a European literary and artistic movement. Melodrama, with its outpourings of emotion, was the most prevalent dramatic form in the 19th century. Gothic melodramas...
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Capitalism.
Physiocracy is the term applied to a school of economic thought that suggested the existence of a natural order in economics, one that does not require direction from the state for people to be prosperous. The leader of the physiocrats, the economist François Quesnay, set forth the basic principles in his Tableau économique (1758), in which he traced the flow of money and goods through the economy. Simply put, this flow was seen to be both circular and self-sustaining. More important, however...
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Québec - Geography.
facilities. Tributaries south of the St. Lawrence include the Richelieu, the Saint-François, and the Chaudière rivers, which are only a few hundred kilometers long. TheRimouski and Matane rivers, also south of the St. Lawrence, are popular areas for recreation and salmon fishing. In the Canadian Shield, the longest rivers are theRupert, Eastmain, Grande Baleine, and La Grand-Rivière, which is the site of a huge hydroelectric complex. C Coastlines Québec has two systems of saltwater coastline. O...
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Québec - Canadian History.
facilities. Tributaries south of the St. Lawrence include the Richelieu, the Saint-François, and the Chaudière rivers, which are only a few hundred kilometers long. TheRimouski and Matane rivers, also south of the St. Lawrence, are popular areas for recreation and salmon fishing. In the Canadian Shield, the longest rivers are theRupert, Eastmain, Grande Baleine, and La Grand-Rivière, which is the site of a huge hydroelectric complex. C Coastlines Québec has two systems of saltwater coastline. O...
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San Francisco - geography.
recognized symbol of the city, opened in 1937. It connects San Francisco to Marin County to the north, one of the wealthiest suburban areas in the nation. With the construction of the Bay and Golden Gate bridges and other links from the city to its suburbs, the San Francisco Bay area has become one large metropolitanregion. San Francisco itself is only 122 sq km (47 sq mi) of land area, but the city’s Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area (defined by the Census Bureau as SanFrancisco, San Mateo,...
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Uruguay (country) - country.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution of Uruguay. Three-quarters of the people belong to the Roman Catholic Church. There are also sizable Protestantand Jewish congregations. The official language is Spanish, which in Uruguay has been influenced by Italian vocabulary and pronunciation. C Education Uruguay has one of the highest rates of literacy in Latin America, at 98.2 percent of the adult population. Six years of primary education is compulsory, and Uruguay isone of the few n...
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Washington, D.
structures built according to L’Enfant’s plan. During the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the White House, destroying its interior. President James Madison and hisfamily lived in the Octagon while the White House was being rebuilt. South of the Federal Triangle is the Mall, a narrow park stretching roughly 1.6 km (1 mi) from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Although the Mall officially endsat 14th Street, landscaped greenery extends to the Potomac. The Washington Monument, whose m...
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Canadian Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Canadian Literature, literature of the peoples of Canada.
William Henry DrummondPoet William Henry Drummond described the lives of French Canadian farmers, loggers, and rural workers in verse thatreflected their mix of French and English speech. He gained recognition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Library of Congress In the early 19th century, most Canadian poetry imitated earlier British poetry. Poets Oliver Goldsmith (grandnephew of the Anglo-Irish writer of the same name),Charles Sangster, Charles Mair, and Levi Adams exemplified literary...
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American Literature: Poetry
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INTRODUCTION
Phyllis McGinley
American poet and author Phyllis McGinley composed light, witty verse, much of which deals with family life.
Taylor, a poet of great technical skill, wrote powerful meditative poems in which he tested himself morally and sought to identify and root out sinful tendencies. In“God's Determinations Touching His Elect” (written 1680?), one of Taylor’s most important works, he celebrates God's power in the triumph of good over evil in thehuman soul. All of Taylor’s poetry and much of Bradstreet’s served generally personal ends, and their audience often consisted of themselves and their family andclosest frie...
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Colonialism and Colonies.
by plundering the riches of existing civilizations in the Americas and by seizing the area’s mineral wealth through mining. These practices were promoted by the policy of mercantilism that many European colonial powers adopted. Those who advocated mercantilism believed that exports toforeign countries were preferable both to trade within a country and to imports because exports brought more money into the country. They also believed that thewealth of a nation depended primarily on the possession...
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Colonialism and Colonies .
by plundering the riches of existing civilizations in the Americas and by seizing the area’s mineral wealth through mining. These practices were promoted by the policy of mercantilism that many European colonial powers adopted. Those who advocated mercantilism believed that exports toforeign countries were preferable both to trade within a country and to imports because exports brought more money into the country. They also believed that thewealth of a nation depended primarily on the possession...
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Indiana - geography.
Michigan in Michigan. There are about 1,000 small natural lakes in Indiana, chiefly in the northern part of the state. The largest is Lake Wawasee, which covers almost 13 sq km (5 sq mi). Inthe central part of the state there are several lakes that were created behind dams on a number of smaller streams. They include Monroe Lake, near Bloomington; Geistand Eagle Creek reservoirs, northeast and northwest of Indianapolis; and Mississinewa and Huntington reservoirs, north of Marion. C Climate Most...
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Indiana - USA History.
Michigan in Michigan. There are about 1,000 small natural lakes in Indiana, chiefly in the northern part of the state. The largest is Lake Wawasee, which covers almost 13 sq km (5 sq mi). Inthe central part of the state there are several lakes that were created behind dams on a number of smaller streams. They include Monroe Lake, near Bloomington; Geistand Eagle Creek reservoirs, northeast and northwest of Indianapolis; and Mississinewa and Huntington reservoirs, north of Marion. C Climate Most...
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Public Education in the United States.
opportunities for them to break out from whatever social or economic circumstances constrained their development. IV HIGHER EDUCATION During the 20th century participation in higher or postsecondary education in the United States increased as dramatically as it did in American high schools. At thebeginning of the century about 2 percent of Americans from the ages of 18 to 24 were enrolled in a college. There were fewer than 1,000 colleges then, with enrollmenttotaling about 157,000 students. N...
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Ontario - Geography.
governed Ontario’s initial settlement and development. The province’s most important river is the St. Lawrence. Its route was much improved and enlarged by dredgingand canal building in the mid-20th century. This enabled large ocean-going vessels to reach Great Lake ports ( see St. Lawrence Seaway). The Ottawa River was an important early route to the interior for fur traders and timber merchants. The Niagara River, because of its falls, is a great center of hydroelectric power as well as aninte...
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Ontario - Canadian History.
governed Ontario’s initial settlement and development. The province’s most important river is the St. Lawrence. Its route was much improved and enlarged by dredgingand canal building in the mid-20th century. This enabled large ocean-going vessels to reach Great Lake ports ( see St. Lawrence Seaway). The Ottawa River was an important early route to the interior for fur traders and timber merchants. The Niagara River, because of its falls, is a great center of hydroelectric power as well as aninte...
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Immigration.
1655, only to lose all of their North American colonies to the British in 1664. These early colonies were often quite cosmopolitan, drawing settlers from many nations.When the English seized New Amsterdam, the city was home to perhaps 1500 residents, including Walloons, Huguenots, Swedes, Dutchmen, and African Americans. C The French and Spanish The French and Spanish also established colonies in North America. The Spanish established the oldest permanent European settlement in Saint Augustine,...
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Immigration - U.
1655, only to lose all of their North American colonies to the British in 1664. These early colonies were often quite cosmopolitan, drawing settlers from many nations.When the English seized New Amsterdam, the city was home to perhaps 1500 residents, including Walloons, Huguenots, Swedes, Dutchmen, and African Americans. C The French and Spanish The French and Spanish also established colonies in North America. The Spanish established the oldest permanent European settlement in Saint Augustine,...
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London (England) - geography.
In the northern part of the West End is Bloomsbury, the city’s traditional intellectual center, with its concentration of bookshops and homes of writers and academics. Inthe early 20th century a number of famous writers, critics, and artists who lived here became known as the Bloomsbury Group. Here, too, is the British Museum, one ofLondon’s chief tourist attractions. Nearby is the giant complex of the University of London, whose various colleges and departments have taken over much ofBloomsbury...
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Chile - country.
D Plant and Animal Life The indigenous plant life of Chile varies according to climatic zone. Plant life in the northern region includes brambles and cactus and has little variety. Here, theAtacama provides one of the best examples on Earth of an absolute desert. The more humid Central Valley supports several species of cacti, espino (a thorny shrub),grasses, and the Chilean pine, which bears edible nuts. Dense rain forests are located south of Valdivia with laurel, magnolia, false beech, and v...
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Christmas.
The new custom of Christmas gift giving allowed the marketplace to exert an unprecedented influence on holiday celebrations. Commercial innovations such asdepartment stores and mass advertising further expanded the custom of exchanging Christmas gifts. Seasonal retail sales helped fuel the economy, causing merchantsand advertisers to become some of the season’s most ardent promoters. Many holiday celebrants regretted these changes, however, and began voicing the nowcommon lament that Christmas h...
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Slavery in Africa.
The spread of Islam from Arabia into Africa after the religion’s founding in the 7th century AD affected the practice of slavery and slave trading in West, Central, and East Africa. Arabs had practiced slave raiding and trading in Arabia for centuries prior to the founding of Islam, and slavery became a component of Islamic traditions.Both the Qur'an (Koran) (the sacred scripture of Islam) and Islamic religious law served to codify and justify the existence of slavery. As Muslim Arabs conquered...
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Zimbabwe - country.
contamination—especially from the dieldrin and DDT used in tsetse fly control—has significantly affected wildlife and human health. III PEOPLE AND SOCIETY OF ZIMBABWE In 2008 Zimbabwe’s population was estimated to be 12,382,920, giving the country a population density of 32 persons per sq km (83 per sq mi). With a birth rate of27 per 1,000 and a death rate of 22 per 1,000, Zimbabwe’s population growth rate is 0.6 percent. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 40 years in 2008, downfrom 59...
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Tuberculosis.
TB has existed for thousands of years. Scars on a skull found in Turkey indicate the presence of the disease 500,000 years ago. Scientists also have found tubercles inmummified bodies from ancient Egypt. References to TB can be found in the writings of ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and China. The term tuberculosis was first used in 1839; it was derived from the Latin word tubercula, meaning small lump, referring to the small scars seen in tissues of infected individuals. TB reappeared in Europe...
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Guyana - country.
European patterns of living. People of mixed African and European ancestry form a distinct group in Guyana, maintaining closer social ties to the European communitythan to the African Guyanese community. Asians from the Indian subcontinent began to arrive in the 19th century, following the abolition of slavery in Guyana, to work as indentured and contract laborers. Theycontinued to arrive until 1917, when Britain outlawed indentured servitude. Thousands of Indians chose to remain in Guyana after...
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Labor Unions in Canada - Canadian History.
job. Before collective bargaining begins, workers elect a bargaining committee. The bargaining committee determines the workers’ demands and strategy innegotiations with the employer. Local unions usually are part of national or international unions. These national and international unions employ a staff for organizing workers at the local level, doingresearch, educating union members about labor and political matters, and working with local union leaders. Unions hold regular conventions of dele...
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Literary Criticism
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INTRODUCTION
Literary Criticism, discussion of literature, including description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of literary works.
IV THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES The climate of criticism changed with the arrival on the literary scene of such giants as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Pedro Calderòn in Spain; WilliamShakespeare, Ben Jonson, and John Milton in England; and Pierre Corneille, Jean Baptiste Racine, and Molière in France. Most of these writers specialized or excelled indrama, and consequently the so-called battle of the ancients and moderns—the critical comparison of Greek and Roman authors with more rece...
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History of United States Business.
their lives. But the rewards were worth it; a few lucrative voyages and a merchant could buy a townhouse, a carriage, perhaps a summer retreat. The merchant couldclimb the social ladder and circulate among the powerful in this highly materialistic society. This prospect of riches and the honor that accompanied them made Americancolonists willing to engage in highly speculative enterprises, such as shipping flour to the West Indies or importing goods from England by the thousands without beingcer...
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Puzzle.
Visual puzzles involve searching a picture to find hidden or disguised figures or answering a question about some part of a visual illusion. For instance, the popular 19th- century prints of American lithographic company Currier & Ives featured hidden people, animals, and other objects. A 16th-century painting from Bukhara, Uzbekistan,of a camel includes hidden figures of 17 people, 10 rabbits, a monkey, and a dragon (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City). B Mathematical Puzzles and Logic...
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Native American Languages.
From Nahuatl, spoken in Middle America, come avocado, cacao, cocoa, chile/chili, chocolate, coyote, tamale , tomato , and many others. Contributions from South American languages include jaguar, cashew, tapioca, and toucan from Tupinambá; alpaca, condor, jerky, llama, puma, and quinine from Quechua; and barbecue, canoe, guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, maize, papaya, and potato from Maipurean (Arawakan). Native American languages, in turn, have borrowed words from European language...
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Children's Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Kate Greenaway's May Day
The delicate skill and graceful simplicity of English artist Kate Greenaway's illustrations delighted children and impressed
thinkers, including art critic John Ruskin.
With the development of vernacular literature, particularly after the invention of printing, more children's books appeared. The publications of the first English printer,William Caxton, included the Book of Curtesye (1477), a collection of rhymes that sets forth rules of conduct for a “goodly chylde.” Eight years later Caxton printed Le Morte d'Arthur (1469-1470; The Death of Arthur ) by English translator and compiler Sir Thomas Malory, which became the basis for later treatments of the A...
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Geographic Exploration.
The commercial reason for exploration has been a consistent driving force. In 1492 the great navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Oceanseeking a new, shorter, and cheaper route to reach the riches of East Asia, and Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa for much the same reason.Yet similar investigations of the profitable eastern trade had already been made by Arab sailors. Arab trading ships were sailing from the Arabian Sea to southeasternAsia probab...
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Geographic Exploration - explorer.
The commercial reason for exploration has been a consistent driving force. In 1492 the great navigator Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic Oceanseeking a new, shorter, and cheaper route to reach the riches of East Asia, and Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa for much the same reason.Yet similar investigations of the profitable eastern trade had already been made by Arab sailors. Arab trading ships were sailing from the Arabian Sea to southeasternAsia probab...
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Musical Instruments
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INTRODUCTION
World Music Tour
Click on the instruments to hear music from around the world.
Traditional Timbila of MozambiqueAmong the Chopi, who have lived for centuries along the coast of Mozambique, there is a highly developed tradition ofsongwriting and composing for timbila (xylophone) orchestras. Elaborate migodo (dance suites), interspersed with poeticsongs pertaining to village life, are often performed to these compositions. Timbila music is now recognized as the nationalmusic of Mozambique."Eduardo Durao Mauaia" from Eduardo Durao and Orquestra Durao: Timbila (Cat.# Globestyl...
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United States Government.
Article II establishes an executive department headed by a president and vice president. The article further describes the powers of the offices, the manner of election,and the qualifications for office. Of special significance is the president’s constitutional role as commander of the nation’s armed forces, which assures civilian controlover the military. Because the president is the head of the armed forces and only Congress can declare war, the authority of the military is diffused and its po...
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Boston - geography.
The neighborhoods of Allston and Brighton occupy the northwest corner of the city to the west of Fenway. The Allston-Brighton area is bordered to the east, north, andwest by the Charles River and to the south by the Massachusetts Turnpike and the town of Brookline. It is an industrial and residential neighborhood that is also thelocation of Boston College and Harvard University Business School. Boston has been unsuccessful in annexing Brookline, the birthplace of U.S. president John F.Kennedy an...
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Puerto Rico - geography.
the length of the day remains fairly constant throughout the year. San Juan has a mean July temperature of 28°C (83°F) and a mean January temperature of 25°C (77°F). The average temperature of the seawater surrounding theisland is 27°C (81°F), with little variation during the course of the year. The entire island is cooled by the trade winds from the northeast. This air also contains much water vapor. As the air is forced to rise over the mountains, it becomescooler and the water vapor condenses...
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Communism.
In Britain, Robert Owen, a philanthropic Welsh manufacturer, strove against the social problems brought about by the Industrial Revolution and sought to improve thewelfare of workers. As manager of a cotton mill, he enhanced the environment of his workers by improving their housing, modernizing mill equipment for greater safetyand sanitation, and establishing low-priced stores for the workers and schools for their children. Owen believed that workers, rather than governments, should createthe in...
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Communism .
In Britain, Robert Owen, a philanthropic Welsh manufacturer, strove against the social problems brought about by the Industrial Revolution and sought to improve thewelfare of workers. As manager of a cotton mill, he enhanced the environment of his workers by improving their housing, modernizing mill equipment for greater safetyand sanitation, and establishing low-priced stores for the workers and schools for their children. Owen believed that workers, rather than governments, should createthe in...
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American Music
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INTRODUCTION
American Music, the folk, popular, and classical music of the United States--created by American-born or American-trained composers, or originating in American
culture, or written primarily for American audiences.
The country's first permanent orchestra was the New York Philharmonic Society, founded in 1842. Among the first symphonic and operatic composers the mostprominent was William Henry Fry, who composed the first opera by an American ( Leonora, 1845). Fry is best remembered, however, for four symphonies written in the 1850s and 1860s. George F. Bristow wrote the first opera on an American theme; his Rip Van Winkle was performed in New York City in 1855. Town bands, a popular form of community mu...
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Blacks in Latin America.
Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean the slave population declined at the astonishing rate of 2 to 4 percent a year; thus, by the time slavery was abolished, theoverall slave population in many places was far less than the total number of slaves imported. The British colony of Jamaica, for example, imported more than 600,000slaves during the 18th century; yet, in 1838, the slave population numbered little more than 300,000. The French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti)imported mo...
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Uganda - country.
Uganda’s population is predominantly rural and is concentrated in the south, particularly in the crescent at the edge of Lake Victoria and in the southwest. Almost allUgandans are black Africans. Foreign residents make up less than 4 percent of the population and come mostly from neighboring states. In 2008 Uganda’s population was estimated at 31,367,972. The estimated growth rate of the population in 2008 was 3.6 percent. The birth rate was 48 per 1,000people and the death rate 12 per 1,000. Th...
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Woman Suffrage - U.
form the National American Woman Suffrage Association. For many years thereafter the association worked to advance women’s rights on both the state and federallevels. Besides Stone, Anthony, and Stanton, leaders and supporters of the association included the noted American feminists Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward Howe,Clara Barton, Jane Addams, and Carrie Chapman Catt. Largely as a result of agitation by the association, suffrage was granted in the states of Colorado (1893), Utahand Idaho (18...
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Modern Dance
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INTRODUCTION
Modern Dance, tradition of theatrical dance unique to the 20th century.
Though both had their own interests and styles, their collaboration helped establish modern dance as a 20th-century artform. Shawn helped overcome prejudices against men in the new field of modern dance.E.O. Hoppé/Corbis Because a dance language involves elements such as posture, use of the body’s weight, and the character of movements (sinuous, angular, and so forth)—as well asspecific movements of the head, torso, hands, arms, legs, and feet—most creators of modern dance have considered it ess...
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Musical
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INTRODUCTION
George Gershwin
American pianist, songwriter, and composer George Gershwin was one of the most important figures in popular song in
the 1920s and 1930s.
C Extravaganzas Another predecessor of musical comedy, the extravaganza, evolved soon after the American Civil War (1861-1865) from traditional English pantomime. Extravaganzaswere typically based on fairy tales and Mother Goose. They introduced some of the elements—songs, dances, and comedy combined with spectacular stage sets andeffects—that American musical comedy later became known for. The first and most famous extravaganza show was The Black Crook (1866), often described as America’s fi...
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Folk Art
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INTRODUCTION
Carved Native American Figure
This figure of a Native American trapper was carved from a single pine log (about 1850-1890).
that young Native American women were taught to weave by Ursuline nuns. The overall spirit of French-Canadian folk art is colorful, happy, and, at the same time,devout. B Anglo-Canadian Folk Art The English tradition in the Maritime provinces is strong in the decoration of utilitarian objects, in graining, marbling, and incising, and in ship carvings (both figureheadsand stern-board decorations). The emigration to Canada of many New Englanders during and after the American Revolution led to int...
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Abolitionist Movement.
The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1799), widely seen as revolutions by citizens against oppressive rulers, transformed thisEnlightenment assertion into a call for universal liberty and freedom. The successful slave revolt that began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 was part of this revolutionary age. Led by François Dominique ToussaintLouverture, black rebels overthrew the colonial government, ended slavery in the colony, and in 1804 established th...