- Second Helvetic Confession (Protestant confession)
Helvetic Confession: Second Helvetic Confession: …document became known as the Second Helvetic Confession and was published in 1566 as the official creed of the Swiss cantons. It was also adopted in the Palatinate and was recognized in Scotland (1566), Hungary (1567), France (1571), and Poland (1578). Also favourably received in Holland and England, it was…
- Second Idea (physics)
Andrey Sakharov: …credits Ginzburg for the “Second Idea.” In 1949 Ginzburg published reports proposing substituting lithium deuteride for the liquid deuterium. When bombarded with neutrons, the lithium yields tritium, which when fused with the deuterium generates a greater release of energy.
- Second Indochina War (1954–1975)
Vietnam War, (1954–75), a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. Called the “American War” in Vietnam (or, in full, the “War
- Second Industrial Revolution (history)
history of Europe: The second industrial revolution: As during the previous half century, much of the framework for Europe’s history following 1850 was set by rapidly changing social and economic patterns, which extended to virtually the entire continent. In western Europe, shifts were less dramatic than they had been…
- Second Intermediate period (Egyptian history)
ancient Egypt: The Second Intermediate period: The increasing competition for power in Egypt and Nubia crystallized in the formation of two new dynasties: the 15th, called the Hyksos (c. 1630–c. 1530 bce), with its capital…
- Second International Congress of Mathematics (Paris, France [1900])
history of logic: Other 19th-century logicians: …Congress of Philosophy and the Second International Congress of Mathematics held consecutively in Paris in August 1900. The overlap between the two congresses was extensive and fortunate for the future of logic and philosophy. Peano, Alessandro Padoa, Burali-Forti, Schröder, Cantor, Dedekind, Frege, Felix Klein, Ladd Franklin (Peirce’s student), Coutourat, and…
- Second International Polar Year ([1932-1933])
Antarctica: IGY and the Antarctic Treaty: In 1932–33 the Second International Polar Year took place, with 34 nations participating, but no Antarctic expeditions were mounted.
- second intifada (Israeli–Palestinian history)
intifada: The second intifada: The second intifada was much more violent than the first. During the approximately five-year uprising, more than 4,300 fatalities were registered, and again the ratio of Palestinian to Israeli deaths was slightly more than 3 to 1.
- Second Isaiah (biblical literature)
Deutero-Isaiah, section of the Old Testament Book of Isaiah (chapters 40–55) that is later in origin than the preceding chapters, though not as late as the following chapters. See Isaiah, Book
- Second Isaiah: A New Interpretation, The (work by Torrey)
Charles Cutler Torrey: In The Second Isaiah: A New Interpretation (1928), he argued that Isa. 34–35 and 40–66 should be dated c. 400 bc. His Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Original Prophecy (1930) presents his theory that the canonical book of Ezekiel is a revision of a 3rd-century pseudepigraphon. In The…
- Second Jewish Commonwealth
biblical literature: Textual criticism: …the closing generations of the Second Jewish Commonwealth (c. 450 bce–c. 135 ce), at least three types of Hebrew text: (1) the ancestor of the Masoretic text, (2) the Hebrew basis of the Septuagint version, and (3) a popular text of the Pentateuch akin to the Samaritan edition. A comparative…
- Second Kamchatka Expedition (Russian exploration)
Great Northern Expedition, (1733–42), in Russian history, the continuation of an enterprise initially conceived by the emperor Peter I the Great to map the northern sea route to the East. The expedition mapped a large section of the Arctic coast of Siberia and stimulated Siberian merchants to
- second law of thermodynamics
second law of thermodynamics, statement describing the amount of useful work that can be done from a process that exchanges or transfers heat. The second law of thermodynamics can be precisely stated in the following two forms, as originally formulated in the 19th century by the Scottish physicist
- Second Life (Internet life-simulation network)
Second Life, life-simulation network on the Internet created in 2003 by the American company Linden Research, Inc. Second Life allows users to create and manage the lives of avatars they create in an advanced social setting with other online “Residents.” Although it parallels a video game in some
- Second Look (work by Snow)
C.P. Snow: …Revolution (1959) and its sequel, Second Look (1964), constitute Snow’s most widely known—and widely attacked—position. He argued that practitioners of either of the two disciplines know little, if anything, about the other and that communication is difficult, if not impossible, between them. Snow thus called attention to a breach in…
- Second Manassas (American Civil War [1862])
Second Battle of Bull Run, (August 29–30, 1862), in the American Civil War, the second of two engagements fought at a small stream named Bull Run, near Manassas in northern Virginia. (Civil War battles often had one name in the North, which was usually associated with a prominent nearby physical
- Second Marriage (novel by Barthelme)
Frederick Barthelme: …protagonist of his humorous novel Second Marriage (1984) is a man whose second wife kicks him out of their home in order to make room for his first wife. Similarly, his novel Tracer (1985) presents a disheartened male and two women to whom he is attached.
- second maxillae (crustacean)
malacostracan: Size range and diversity of structure: The first and second maxillae are short, with variable numbers of inner biting plates (endites) and often with outer lobes (epipodites), but the palps are short or lacking.
- Second Mediterranean Entente (European history)
20th-century international relations: The era of the great powers: …an Anglo-Austro-Italian combination called the Second Mediterranean Entente, which blocked Russian ambitions in Bulgaria while Bismarck himself concluded a Reinsurance Treaty with St. Petersburg in 1887. Once more the Eastern Question had been defused and Germany’s alliances preserved.
- Second Memoir on Babylon (work by Rich)
Claudius James Rich: …Babylon (1815) and expanded in Second Memoir on Babylon (1818).
- second messenger (biology)
second messenger, molecule inside cells that acts to transmit signals from a receptor to a target. The term second messenger was coined upon the discovery of these substances in order to distinguish them from hormones and other molecules that function outside the cell as “first messengers” in the
- Second Missouri Compromise (United States [1821])
Missouri Compromise: …called upon to formulate the Second Missouri Compromise. On March 2, 1821, Congress stipulated that Missouri could not gain admission to the Union until it agreed that the exclusionary clause would never be interpreted in such a way as to abridge the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens. Missouri so…
- second model Brown Bess (firearm)
small arm: Standardized patterns and parts: …muskets, and in 1768 the Short Land musket, with a 42-inch barrel, became standard. Known as the second model Brown Bess, the Short Land became one of the basic weapons used in the American Revolution (1775–83). It was succeeded in 1797 by the “India Pattern,” with a 39-inch barrel. During…
- Second Moroccan Crisis (European history)
Agadir Incident, event involving a German attempt to challenge French rights in Morocco by sending the gunboat Panther to Agadir in July 1911. The action incited the Second Moroccan Crisis (see Moroccan
- Second Mrs. Tanqueray, The (play by Pinero)
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero: …The Profligate (1889) and—most sensationally—in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893), which established Pinero as an important playwright. This was the first of several plays depicting women battling with their situation in society. These plays not only created good parts for actresses but also demanded sympathy for women, who were judged…
- Second New Deal (United States history)
United States presidential election of 1936: Political atmosphere: …required, Roosevelt introduced a “Second New Deal” in 1935 that included the Social Security Act and the Works Progress Administration. In addition, the Democratic Congress also passed a major tax revision—labeled by its opponents as a “soak-the-rich” tax—that raised tax rates for persons with large incomes and for large…
- Second Northern War (Europe [1700–1721])
Second Northern War, (1700–21), military conflict in which Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland challenged the supremacy of Sweden in the Baltic area. The war resulted in the decline of Swedish influence and the emergence of Russia as a major power in that region. Sweden’s expansion in the
- Second Nun’s Tale, The (story by Chaucer)
The Second Nun’s Tale, one of the 24 stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. This religious tale exemplifies Chaucer’s mercurial shifts in tone and poetic style. Taken from the 13th-century compilation of lives of the saints, the Legenda aurea (Golden Legend) of Jacobus de Voragine,
- Second Opium War (1856–1860)
Opium Wars: The second Opium War: In the mid-1850s, while the Qing government was embroiled in trying to quell the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64), the British, seeking to extend their trading rights in China, found an excuse to renew hostilities. In early October 1856 some Chinese officials boarded the…
- Second Order of St. Francis (religious order)
Poor Clare, any member of the Franciscan Order of St. Clare, a Roman Catholic religious order of nuns cofounded by St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi in Italy in 1212. The Poor Clares are considered the second of the three Franciscan orders. Because each convent of Poor Clares is largely
- Second Overture on Russian Themes (work by Balakirev)
Mily Balakirev: …ultimately became the symphonic poem Russia; he spent summer holidays in the Caucasus, gathering themes and inspiration for his brilliant piano fantasy Islamey (1869) and his symphonic poem Tamara (1867–82); he published the works of composer Mikhail Glinka and visited Prague to produce them; and for a time (1867–69) he…
- Second Partition of Poland (Polish history)
Partitions of Poland, (1772, 1793, 1795), three territorial divisions of Poland, perpetrated by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, by which Poland’s size was progressively reduced until, after the final partition, the state of Poland ceased to exist. The First Partition occurred after Russia became
- Second Philippic (oration by Demosthenes)
Demosthenes: Leader of the democratic faction: Demosthenes’ “Second Philippic,” in 344, retorted that he would never have agreed to the Peace of Philocrates if he had known that Philip would not honour his word; moreover, he asserted, Aeschines and others had lulled the Athenians into a false sense of security. The issue…
- Second Philippine Commission (United States mission)
William Howard Taft: Early political career: …serve as chairman of the Second Philippine Commission. Charged with organizing civil government in the islands following the Spanish-American War (1898), Taft displayed considerable talent as an executive and administrator. In 1901 he became the first civilian governor of the Philippines, concentrating in that post on the economic development of…
- Second Piano Sonata (work by Ives)
Charles Ives: His monumental Second Piano Sonata (subtitled Concord, Mass., 1840–60), which was written from 1909 to 1915 and first performed in 1938, echoes the spirit of the New England Transcendentalists in its four sections, “Emerson,” “Hawthorne,” “The Alcotts,” and “Thoreau.” It contains tone clusters, quotes Beethoven, and includes…
- Second Pluvial Stage (geology)
Africa: Pleistocene and Holocene developments: The Kamasian, or Second, Pluvial of the middle Pleistocene Epoch corresponds to the Mindel in Europe. A dry but not a desert climate is implied by the Kamasian-Kanjeran Interpluvial levels at Olduvai Gorge. The Kanjeran, or Third, Pluvial occurred during the middle Pleistocene and corresponds to…
- second position (ballet)
ballet position: In the second position, the feet are in a parallel line, separated by a distance of about 12 inches (30 cm) and both turned outward, with the weight equally divided between them. In second position en l’air (“in the air”), the weight is supported by one foot…
- Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, The (liturgical work)
Book of Common Prayer: …latter prevailed, and in 1552 The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI was introduced. The revision made great changes in its text and ceremonies, all in a Protestant direction. In 1553 the new Catholic queen, Mary, restored the old Latin liturgical books. After Elizabeth I became queen in 1558, the…
- second premise (logic)
history of logic: Syllogisms: …it occurs is called the minor premise. This way of describing major and minor terms conforms to Aristotle’s actual practice and was proposed as a definition by the 6th-century Greek commentator John Philoponus. But in one passage Aristotle put it differently: the minor term is said to be “included” in…
- Second Rawlings Coup, 1981 (history of Ghana)
Ghana: Series of coups: At the end of 1981, Rawlings decided that he and those who thought like him must take the lead in all walks of life, and he again overthrew the government. His second military coup established a Provisional National Defense Council as the supreme national government; at local levels, people’s…
- Second Red Scare (American history)
McCarthyism, name given to the period of time in American history that saw U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin produce a series of investigations and hearings during the 1950s in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government. The term has since
- Second Reich (historical nation, Germany)
German Empire, historical empire founded on January 18, 1871, in the wake of three short, successful wars by the North German state of Prussia. Within a seven-year span, Denmark, the Habsburg monarchy, and France had been vanquished. The empire had its origin not in an upwelling of nationalist
- Second Republic (Burundian history)
Burundi: The First and Second republics: Discord and violence have marked Burundi since independence. Although bloodshed has not occurred on the scale seen in Rwanda, ethnic conflict has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of people being displaced from their homes. The first incident…
- Second Republic (Madagascan history)
Madagascar: The Second Republic: Ratsiraka was sworn in as president on January 4, 1976. He proceeded to solidify his political control and to continue the economic policies of the Ramanantsoa government, including the nationalization of banks, industries, and services such as the distribution of gasoline and movies,…
- Second Republic (Austrian history)
Austria: Second Republic: On April 27, 1945, former chancellor Karl Renner set up a provisional government composed of Social Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Communists and proclaimed the reestablishment of Austria as a democratic republic. The Western powers, afraid that the Renner government might be…
- Second Republic (French history)
Second Republic, (1848–52) French republic established after the Revolution of 1848 toppled the July monarchy of King Louis-Philippe. (The first French republic had been formed during the French Revolution.) The liberal republicans’ hopes of establishing an enduring democratic regime were soon
- Second Republic (Lebanese history)
Lebanon: Lebanon’s Second Republic (1990– ): The immediate challenges of Lebanon’s post-civil war period were to reconstruct the country’s social and economic infrastructure and to institutionalize the political reforms agreed to at Ṭāʾif. The
- Second Republic (South Korean history)
South Korea: The Second Republic: The Second Republic, which adopted a parliamentary cabinet system, lasted only nine months. A figurehead president was elected by both houses of the legislature, and power was shifted to the office of Prime Minister Chang Myon (Jang Myeon), who was elected by the…
- Second Republic (Spanish history)
Spain: The Second Republic: The history of the Second Republic falls into four distinct phases: (1) the Provisional Government, which lasted until the religious issue forced its resignation in October 1931, (2) the governments of the Left Republicans and Socialists, which ruled from October 1931 and were…
- Second Revolution (Chinese history)
China: Early power struggles: …Yuan, later known as the Second Revolution, but his military followers quickly suppressed it. Sun Yat-sen, one of the principal revolutionaries, fled to Japan. Yuan then coerced parliament into electing him formally to the presidency, and he was inaugurated on October 10, the second anniversary of the outbreak of the…
- Second Riel Rebellion (Canadian history [1885])
North-West Rebellion, violent insurgency in 1885 fought between the Canadian government and the Métis and their aboriginal allies, in regions of Canada later known as Saskatchewan and Alberta. The North-West Rebellion was triggered by rising concern and insecurity among the Métis about their land
- Second Round, The (work by Peters)
Lenrie Peters: Peters’s only novel, The Second Round (1965), is semiautobiographical in its story of the disillusionment and alienation of a young doctor returning from England to Freetown after completing his medical studies and finding his home unsettled and unsettling, the people there having rejected all traditional values without substituting…
- Second Rule (work by Francis of Assisi)
St. Francis of Assisi: The Franciscan rule of St. Francis of Assisi: …of the rule—known as the Regula secunda (“Second Rule”), or Regula bullata (“Rule with a Bull”)—to Pope Honorius III, who approved it in the bull Solet annuere (“Accustomed to Grant”) on November 29, 1223. As the official rule of the order, Regula bullata enjoined the friars “to observe the holy…
- Second Schleswig War (European history)
German-Danish War, (1864), the second of two conflicts over the settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein question, a complex of problems arising from the relationship of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein to Denmark, to each other, and to the German Confederation. Involved in it were a disputed
- Second Scots Confession (Protestantism)
Scots Confession: The Second Scots Confession, also called the King’s Confession and the National Covenant (1581), was a supplement to the First Scots Confession. It was a strongly antipapal statement adopted by the king, council, and court and by all the Scottish people in 1581. It was also…
- Second Scroll, The (work by Klein)
A.M. Klein: …wrote about its creation in The Second Scroll (1951), a symbolic novel that carries overtones of the techniques of James Joyce, on whom Klein was an authority. The Rocking Chair and Other Poems (1948) departs from the Jewish frame of reference in describing the change wrought by industrialization on Quebec.
- Second Servile War (Roman history [104–99 bc])
Third Servile War: …Servile Wars (135–132 bce and 104–99 bce) had been fought. Spartacus hoped to reignite these rebellions and to bolster his forces by recruiting freed slaves to his cause. The pirates who had agreed to transport his army proved untrustworthy, however, and Spartacus quickly found himself trapped in Bruttium (modern Calabria).…
- Second Severn Crossing (bridge, United Kingdom)
Monmouthshire: …Crossing (completed 1996; renamed the Prince of Wales Bridge in 2018), and the Severn suspension bridge connect Monmouthshire and the rest of Wales to southern England. Including viaducts, the cable-stayed bridge extends more than 3 miles (5 km) and is the longest in Great Britain. Area present county, 329 square…
- Second Sex, The (work by Beauvoir)
Western philosophy: The existentialism of Jaspers and Sartre: In The Second Sex (1949), Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86), Sartre’s fellow philosopher and lifelong companion, attempted to mobilize the existentialist concept of freedom for the ends of modern feminism.
- Second Shepherds’ Play (English mystery play)
English literature: Middle English drama: …anonymous Wakefield Master, and his Second Shepherds’ Play is one of the masterpieces of medieval English literature. The morality plays were allegorical dramas depicting the progress of a single character, representing the whole of humankind, from the cradle to the grave and sometimes beyond. The other dramatis personae might include…
- Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
Second Sino-Japanese War, (1937–45), conflict that broke out when China began a full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (which had begun in 1931). The war, which remained undeclared until December 9, 1941, may be divided into three phases: a period of rapid
- Second Skin (novel by Hawkes)
John Hawkes: His next novel, Second Skin (1964), is the first-person confessional of a retired naval officer. The Blood Oranges (1971; filmed 1997), Death, Sleep, & the Traveler (1974), and Travesty (1976) explore the concepts of marriage and freedom to unsettling effect. The Passion Artist (1979) and Virginie: Her Two…
- Second Sophistic school (Greco-Roman literary movement)
Sophist: The Second Sophistic movement: It is a historical accident that the name “Sophist” came to be applied to the Second Sophistic movement. Greek literature underwent a period of eclipse during the 1st century bce and under the early Roman Empire. But Roman dominance did not prevent…
- Second Stage, The (work by Friedan)
Betty Friedan: …Women’s Movement and in 1981 The Second Stage, an assessment of the status of the women’s movement. The Fountain of Age (1993) addresses the psychology of old age and urged a revision of society’s view that aging means loss and depletion. Friedan’s other books included the memoir Life So Far…
- Second Star of Africa (gem)
Cullinan diamond: The other diamond—the 317-carat Cullinan II, sometimes called the Second Star of Africa—is the most valuable stone in the Imperial State Crown. The remaining numbered diamonds, Cullinan III–IX, range in weight from 94.4 carats to 4.4 carats. They eventually became part of the British monarch’s personal collection.
- Second String Quartet (work by Ives)
Charles Ives: Ives conceived his Second String Quartet (1911–13; composition on second movement begun 1907) as a conversation, political argument, and reconciliation among four men; it is full of quotations from hymns, marches, and Beethoven, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky. His Variations on America (1891; additions before 1894) is the earliest polytonal…
- Second String Quartet in F Sharp Minor, Opus 10 (work by Schoenberg)
Arnold Schoenberg: Evolution from tonality of Arnold Schoenberg: …the last movement of his Second String Quartet (1907–08). That work is innovative in another respect, too: it is the first string quartet to include a vocal part. The opening words of the Finale, “Ich fühle Luft von anderen Planeten” (“I feel air from another planet”), by the poet Stefan…
- Second style (Roman art)
Western painting: Pagan Roman paintings: …mural paintings of the so-called Second style, the aim of which was to deny the walls as solid surfaces confining the room space. This was sometimes done by covering the whole area of the walls with elaborate landscapes, in which depth, atmosphere, and light are rendered in a highly pictorial,…
- Second Sunday of the Passion (Christianity)
Palm Sunday, in the Christian tradition, the first day of Holy Week and the Sunday before Easter, commemorating Jesus Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is associated in many churches with the blessing and procession of palms (leaves of the date palm or twigs from locally available trees).
- Second Symphony (work by Rachmaninoff)
Sergey Rachmaninoff: Major creative activity: Of these, the Symphony No. 2 is the most significant: it is a work of deep emotion and haunting thematic material. While touring, he was invited to become permanent conductor of the Boston Symphony, but he declined the offer and returned to Russia in February 1910.
- Second Taranki War (Māori-New Zealand history [1863])
Māori: Māori versus Pākehā: The fighting resumed in the Second Taranaki War in April 1863 after Governor Grey built an attack road into the Waikato area and drove the Taranaki Māori from the Tataraimaka block. While fighting raged in Taranaki once again, the Waikato War began in July 1863, and the Waikato River region,…
- Second Temple (Judaism)
Temple of Jerusalem, either of two temples that were the centre of worship and national identity in ancient Israel. In the early years of the Israelite kingdom, the Ark of the Covenant was periodically moved about among several sanctuaries, especially those of Shechem and Shiloh. After King David’s
- Second Thoughts (work by Butor)
Michel Butor: …Modification (1957; Second Thoughts, or A Change of Heart), Butor perfected his experimental technique and was considered to have arrived at his full powers. The work won the Prix Renaudot.
- Second Time Around, The (film by Sherman [1961])
Vincent Sherman: Graylisting and later work: …the Blood (1961), Sherman directed The Second Time Around (1961), a pleasant western with Debbie Reynolds as a sheriff of a small Arizona town. The latter was Sherman’s last Hollywood film. His final feature, Cervantes (1967; also called Young Rebel), was a European film about the Spanish writer.
- Second Treatise of Civil Government (work by Locke)
Two Treatises of Government, major statement of the political philosophy of the English philosopher John Locke, published in 1689 but substantially composed some years before then. The work may be considered a response to the political situation as it existed in England at the time of the exclusion
- Second Treaty of Fort Laramie (United States-Native Americans [1868])
Black Hills: …Sioux and Arapaho by the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. However, after a U.S. military expedition under George A. Custer discovered gold in the Black Hills in 1874, thousands of white gold hunters and miners swarmed into the area the following year. Native American resistance to that influx…
- Second Treaty of Partition (Europe [1699])
War of the Spanish Succession: Dynastic claims: A second Partition Treaty (October 1699) between France and England, which was subscribed in March 1700 by the United Provinces, offered Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Indies to the archduke Charles. The dauphin was to get all of Spanish Italy except Milan, instead of which…
- Second Tree from the Corner, The (literary miscellanea by White)
The Second Tree from the Corner, collection of literary miscellanea by E.B. White, published in 1954. Most of these essays, poems, and stories originally appeared in The New Yorker magazine, with which White was associated from 1927 to the end of his career. In this book White treats modernity and
- Second Villmergen War (Swiss history)
Toggenburg Succession: …reassert his traditional rights over Toggenburg in order to strengthen Swiss Catholicism provoked the leading Protestant confederates, Zürich and Bern, to undertake the Toggenburg (or Second Villmergen) War, in which they quickly defeated the Abbot’s five Catholic supporters, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Zug. The final settlement, under which the…
- Second War of Independence (British-South African history)
South African War, war fought from October 11, 1899, to May 31, 1902, between Great Britain and the two Boer (Afrikaner) republics—the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State—resulting in British victory. Although it was the largest and most costly war in which the British
- second wave of feminism
second wave of feminism, the period of the women’s movement in the United States that emerged in the 1960s and lasted through the 1970s. Unlike the first wave of feminism, of the 19th and early 20th centuries, which focused primarily on securing women’s right to vote, the second wave lobbied for
- Second Wind (novel by Francis)
Dick Francis: Penalty (1997), Second Wind (1999), Shattered (2000), and Under Orders (2006). Late in life he began coauthoring novels with his son Felix, including Dead Heat (2007), Silks (2008), and Even Money (2009). Hot Money (1987) is considered one of his best works.
- Second World War (1939–1945)
World War II, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939–45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many
- Second-Class Citizen (work by Emecheta)
Buchi Emecheta: That work was followed by Second-Class Citizen (1974), and both were later included in the single volume Adah’s Story (1983). Those books introduce Emecheta’s three major themes: the quests for equal treatment, self-confidence, and dignity as a woman. Somewhat different in style is Emecheta’s novel Gwendolen (1989; also published as…
- second-class mail
postal system: United States: …established according to mail content: second-class consists of newspapers and magazines, third-class encompasses other printed matter and merchandise weighing less than one pound, and fourth-class mail is either merchandise or printed matter that weighs one pound or more. The addition of these classes allowed the post office to adopt more…
- second-degree burn (injury)
burn: The damage in a second-degree burn extends through the entire epidermis and part of the dermis. These injuries are characterized by redness and blisters. The deeper the burn the more prevalent the blisters, which increase in size during the hours immediately following the injury. Like first-degree burns, second-degree injuries…
- second-generation computer (computing)
computer: The IBM 360: …are commonly referred to as second-generation computers.
- second-generation free-trade area (economics)
economic integration: Second-generation free-trade area: In a second-generation free-trade area, the basic nature of simple free trade is expanded to include trade in non-goods such as services. Where a simple free-trade area need only address the question of tariffs and quotas, the trade in services and a…
- second-generation language (computer language)
assembly language, type of low-level computer programming language consisting mostly of symbolic equivalents of a particular computer’s machine language. Computers produced by different manufacturers have different machine languages and require different assemblers and assembly languages. Some
- second-generation peacekeeping (UN)
United Nations: Peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace building: …the civilian population was suffering, “second-generation” peacekeeping was developed to achieve multiple political and social objectives. Unlike first-generation peacekeeping, second-generation peacekeeping often involves civilian experts and relief specialists as well as soldiers. Another difference between second-generation and first-generation peacekeeping is that soldiers in some second-generation missions are authorized to employ…
- Second-Hand Hearts (film by Ashby [1981])
Hal Ashby: The 1980s: …acclaimed films, Ashby’s next efforts—Second-Hand Hearts (1981) and Lookin’ to Get Out (1982), which actually was filmed before Hearts but was left on the shelf for two years—were poorly received. Searching for a change of pace, Ashby directed Let’s Spend the Night Together (1982), a Rolling Stones concert film…
- second-impact syndrome (medical condition)
concussion: Second-impact syndrome: Second-impact syndrome is a very rare condition characterized by diffuse cerebral swelling, potentially culminating in death, that is thought to occur when an individual sustains a second concussion when not fully recovered from the first one. There has been debate, however, as to…
- second-language instruction (education)
foreign-language instruction: The term second language refers to a language in which instruction in other school subjects is carried on or that serves as a common language for speakers of diverse language groups, as English does in India or French in Guinea. Second-language instruction begins early, often in primary…
- second-order beat (acoustics)
sound: Beats: Second-order beats occur between the two notes of a mistuned octave, and binaural beats involve beating between tones presented separately to the two ears, so that they do not mix physically.
- second-order differential equation (mathematics)
difference equation: …those in which, for example, second-order differences are involved. A second-order difference is defined as
- second-order logic
formal logic: Higher-order predicate calculi: In particular, in the second-order predicate calculus, quantification is permitted over both individual and predicate variables; hence, wffs such as (∀ϕ)(∃x)ϕx can be formed. This last formula, since it contains no free variables of any kind, expresses a determinate proposition—namely, the proposition that every property has at least one…
- second-order phase transition (physics)
Kenneth Geddes Wilson: …of matter called continuous, or second-order, phase transitions.
- second-order predicate calculus
formal logic: Higher-order predicate calculi: In particular, in the second-order predicate calculus, quantification is permitted over both individual and predicate variables; hence, wffs such as (∀ϕ)(∃x)ϕx can be formed. This last formula, since it contains no free variables of any kind, expresses a determinate proposition—namely, the proposition that every property has at least one…
- second-sight trick (conjuring)
Pinetti: …the 1780s, he introduced the second-sight trick (the apparent transference of thought from the magician to his assistant), automata, and escape tricks, including chain releases and escape from the “thumb tie.” He used elaborate stage apparatus and draped tables, with trapdoors operated by offstage assistants.
- Second-Story Sunlight (painting by Hopper)
Edward Hopper: Such late paintings as Second-Story Sunlight (1960) are distinguished by extremely subtle spatial relationships and an even greater mastery of light than is seen in his work of the 1920s.