South Asian arts: Medieval temple architecture: North Indian style of central India: …of these structures is at Un. Though, unfortunately, they are considerably damaged, judging from the remains, they must have been very elegant structures. The best preserved and easily the finest bhūmija temple is the Udayeśvara (1059–82), situated at Udaipur in Madhya Pradesh. The śikhara, based on a stellate plan, is…

Denis Villeneuve: …32 août sur terre (1998; August 32nd on Earth), a dreamlike and atmospheric film about a woman thrown into an existential crisis after surviving a car accident. He then wrote and directed Maelström (2000), another surreal outing, about a woman (Marie-Josée Croze) whose life spins out of control after she…

desertification: The global reach of desertification: According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the lives of 250 million people are affected by desertification, and as many as 135 million people may be displaced by desertification by 2045, making it one of the most severe environmental challenges facing humanity.

Elie Wiesel: …Wiesel’s first book, in Yiddish, Un di velt hot geshvign (1956; “And the World Has Remained Silent”), abridged as La Nuit (1958; Night), a memoir of a young boy’s spiritual reaction to Auschwitz. It is considered by some critics to be the most powerful literary expression of the Holocaust. His…

Golan Heights: History: …Golan Heights, monitored by a UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). The UNDOF mandate was renewed every six months thereafter.

United Nations Foundation, public charity created in 1998 to assist the United Nations (UN) and its humanitarian efforts through advocacy, partnerships, community building, and fundraising. It strives to connect people, ideas, and resources (from governments, businesses, and international

Anna Banti: …published Un grido lacerante (A Piercing Cry), in which a woman must determine her real vocation as it relates to her life.

Sam Saen Thai was a great sovereign of the Lan Xang kingdom of Laos, whose reign brought peace, prosperity, and stability to the kingdom. The eldest son of Fa Ngum, founder of Lan Xang, Un Heuan was installed as king in 1373. While his father had been a conqueror, Un Heuan excelled in

André Baillon: In Un Homme si simple . . . (1925; “Such a Simple Man . . . ”), confessional in style and written while he was hospitalized, and Chalet 1 (1926), he recounts his experiences of hospitalization. The latter two works and the remarkable story collection Délires…

Lebanon: Factional wrangling over Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon: …by political tension regarding the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, charged with investigating the assassination of Rafic al-Hariri. In 2010, when it became apparent that members of Hezbollah were likely to be indicted in connection with the assassination, Hezbollah and its allies demanded that Lebanon reject the tribunal, which led…

Haiti: Haiti in the 21st century: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH [French: Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti]) assumed authority over the international intervention in June 2004 with a mandate to maintain security, help stabilize the political process, and monitor and promote human rights. MINUSTAH personnel…

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, established in 1938 under Martin Dies as chairman, that conducted investigations through the 1940s and ’50s into alleged communist activities. Those investigated during the Red Scare of 1947–54 included

Michelle Bachelet: President: …UN Women (formally called the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women). She was again the candidate of the center-left bloc in the 2013 Chilean presidential election. Although she finished at the top of the nine-candidate field in the first round of voting in November, she…

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Drainage: Una, which flow north and empty into the Sava; the Drina, which flows north, forms part of the eastern boundary with Serbia, and is also a tributary of the Sava; and the Neretva, which flows from the southeast but assumes a sharp southwestern flow through…

Una, town, southwestern Himachal Pradesh state, northern India. It lies along the Soan River at an elevation of 1,815 feet (550 metres), about 60 miles (95 km) northwest of Shimla, the state capital. Una was formerly an important commercial centre, but it declined after all-weather roads were

keyboard instrument: Modifications in the action: …right and the action-shifting (una corda, or “soft”) pedal at the left.

The Una, American publication, founded by Paulina W. Davis in 1853, that was widely recognized as the first periodical of the women’s rights movement. Though several similar journals had appeared the previous year, The Una was the first to be owned, edited, and published by a woman. The inaugural

Social Democratic Party of Germany: History: …of the vote (while the Independent Social Democrats received another 7.6 percent), but the party’s failure to win favorable terms from the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (terms embodied in the Treaty of Versailles) and the country’s severe economic problems led to a drop in support. Nevertheless,…

Ted Kaczynski was an American criminal who conducted a 17-year bombing campaign that killed 3 and wounded 23 in an attempt to bring about “a revolution against the industrial system.” Kaczynski was a bright child, and he demonstrated an affinity for mathematics from an early age. He enrolled at

Sylvia Plath: Other works: In 2000 The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, covering the years from 1950 to 1962, was published. A biographical film of Plath starring Gwyneth Paltrow (Sylvia) appeared in 2003. In 2009 Plath’s radio play Three Women was staged professionally for the first time. A volume of Plath’s…

rhyme: Weakened, or unaccented, rhyme occurs when the relevant syllable of the rhyming word is unstressed (bend / frightened). Because of the way in which lack of stress affects the sound, a rhyme of this kind may often be regarded as consonance, which occurs when the…

Jhumpa Lahiri: The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland: …returned to short fiction in Unaccustomed Earth (2008), a collection that likewise takes as its subject the experience of immigration as well as that of assimilation into American culture. The collection received the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her novel The Lowland (2013) chronicles the divergent paths of two…

Hiroshi Nakajima: …Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), an organization that by some accounts Nakajima actively worked to undermine in order to regain political control of the issue.

David Unaipon Australian inventor, author, and political activist who was the first Australian Aboriginal person to publish his writing in English. To emphasize the importance of his contribution to Australia, his image is featured on the Australian $50 banknote. Unaipon was born at the Point

Unaka Mountains, segments of the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountain systems in the southeastern United States. They extend from southwestern Virginia along the Tennessee–North Carolina border into northern Georgia. The main ridges average 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), rising in the Great Smoky

Aleutian Islands: History: …permanent settlement is that of Unalaska (Dutch Harbor) on Unalaska Island, where Russians built a village in the 1770s. Unalaska is the former headquarters of a large U.S. Coast Guard fleet that patrolled the sealing grounds of the Pribilof Islands to the north; the city’s Russian Orthodox Church of the…

Alaska: Relief: The largest islands are Unimak, Unalaska, and Umnak. On the occasionally clear summer days, active volcanoes and such glacier-covered peaks as symmetrical Shishaldin Volcano (9,372 feet [2,857 meters]) on Unimak can be seen. Usually, however, the weather is wet and stormy, the winds horizontal and cutting, and the fog all-pervading.

National Autonomous University of Mexico, government-financed coeducational institution of higher education in Mexico City, founded in 1551. The original university building, dating from 1584, was demolished in 1910, and the university was moved to a new campus (constructed 1949–52) at Pedregal de

Christianity: The church and Western states: …in 1302 with the bull Unam Sanctam (“One Holy Church”), the most extreme assertion by any pope of the supremacy of spiritual over secular authority. Revealing how much had changed since the time of Gregory VII, Philip rallied public opinion against the pope, calling the Estates General to session to…

United Nations Security Council: History: …force known as the hybrid United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), authorized by the Security Council in July 2007. Large-scale UNAMID troop deployment did not begin until 2008, some five years after the violence began, and obstruction by the government of Sudanese Pres. Omar al-Bashir limited the mission’s effectiveness.

Roméo Dallaire: …Dallaire took command of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). As a lightly armed force of approximately 2,500 troops, UNAMIR was given a mandate to oversee the peace agreement ending a civil war. The death of the Rwandan president, however, whose plane was shot down over Kigali airport in…

Miguel de Unamuno was an educator, philosopher, and author whose essays had considerable influence in early 20th-century Spain. Unamuno was the son of Basque parents. After attending the Vizcayan Institute of Bilbao, he entered the University of Madrid in 1880 and in four years received a doctorate

Miguel de Unamuno was an educator, philosopher, and author whose essays had considerable influence in early 20th-century Spain. Unamuno was the son of Basque parents. After attending the Vizcayan Institute of Bilbao, he entered the University of Madrid in 1880 and in four years received a doctorate

Aleut language, one of two branches of the Eskimo-Aleut languages (Eskaleut languages). Two mutually intelligible dialects survive: Eastern Unangam Tunuu (Eastern Aleut) and Atkan Unangam Tunuu (Atkan Aleut). A third dialect, Attu Unangam Tunuu (Attu Aleut), now extinct in Alaska, survives on

Aleut, an Indigenous person of the Aleutian Islands and western portion of the Alaska Peninsula of northwestern North America. The name Aleut derives from Russian; depending upon dialect, the people refer to themselves as Unangan or Unangas (the plural of Unangax̂) and Sugpiat (the plural of

Henry Knowles Beecher was an American anesthesiologist and researcher who was an outspoken advocate of ethical standards in human-subjects research and a pioneer in the study of pain, analgesia, and clinical trials that took into account the placebo effect. He also was influential in the growth of

Unani medicine, a traditional system of healing and health maintenance observed in South Asia. The origins of Unani medicine are found in the doctrines of the ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. As a field, it was later developed and refined through systematic experiment by the Arabs,

Unani medicine, a traditional system of healing and health maintenance observed in South Asia. The origins of Unani medicine are found in the doctrines of the ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. As a field, it was later developed and refined through systematic experiment by the Arabs,

Unanimism, French literary movement based on the psychological concept of group consciousness and collective emotion and the need for the poet to merge with this transcendent consciousness. Founded by Jules Romains about 1908, Unanimism particularly influenced some members of the Abbaye de Créteil

Unanimism, French literary movement based on the psychological concept of group consciousness and collective emotion and the need for the poet to merge with this transcendent consciousness. Founded by Jules Romains about 1908, Unanimism particularly influenced some members of the Abbaye de Créteil

Lorna Simpson: …a series of collages titled Unanswerable (2018). The collages considered the representation of African American women by assembling photographs from vintage Jet and Ebony magazines to create absurd juxtapositions.

Charles Ives: In The Unanswered Question (composed before 1908), a string quartet or string orchestra repeats simple harmonies; placed apart from them, a trumpet reiterates a question-like theme that is dissonantly and confusedly commented upon by flutes (optionally with an oboe or a clarinet). In the second movement…

Rihanna: Later works: Rated R, Talk That Talk, and Unapologetic: …hit “We Found Love,” and Unapologetic (2012), which was anchored by the starry-eyed “Diamonds.” The latter release also controversially featured a duet with Brown, with whom she rekindled her relationship for a brief time. Her eighth studio album, Anti, was released in 2016. Rihanna began working on a new record,…

Terence Tiller: …Inward Animal (1943) and especially Unarm, Eros (1947) contain his most highly acclaimed poems, noted for their strong formal pattern, heraldic imagery, and striking sensuousness. Later volumes include Reading a Medal (1957), Notes for a Myth (1968), and That Singing Mesh (1979).

phase: Unary systems: …representation of a one-component (unary) system, in contrast to a two-component (binary), three-component (ternary), or four-component (quaternary) system. The phases coesite, low quartz, high quartz, tridymite, and cristobalite are solid phases composed of silicon dioxide; each has its own atomic arrangement and distinctive set of physical and chemical properties.…

Unas was the last king of the 5th dynasty (c. 2435–c. 2306 bce) of ancient Egypt and the first pharaoh to inscribe the interior of his pyramid at Ṣaqqārah with religious and magical texts known as Pyramid Texts. According to later king lists, Unas was the last ruler of the 5th dynasty, but the

UNASUR, South American organization created in 2008 to propel regional integration on issues including democracy, education, energy, environment, infrastructure, and security and to eliminate social inequality and exclusion. It was inspired by and modeled after the European Union. UNASUR’s members

sloth: Two-toed sloths: Both species of two-toed sloths (family Megalonychidae), also called unaus, belong to the genus Choloepus. Linnaeus’s two-toed sloth (C. didactylus) lives in northern South America east of the Andes and south to the central Amazon basin. Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (C. hoffmanni) is

four-colour map problem: …a catalog of 1,936 “unavoidable” configurations, at least one of which must be present in any graph, no matter how large. Then they showed how each of these configurations could be reduced to a smaller one so that, if the smaller one could be coloured with four colours, so…

Saki: ” His novel The Unbearable Bassington (1912) describes the adventures of a fastidious and likable but maladjusted hero, in a manner anticipating that of the early work of the English satirist Evelyn Waugh. Munro was killed in action in World War I.

Juliette Binoche: …married to a philanderer in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, her first English-language film. Binoche’s performance was highlighted by her ability to relate a range of emotions without speaking or falling into cliché.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, novel by Milan Kundera, first published in 1984 in English and French translations. In 1985 the work was released in the original Czech, but it was banned in Czechoslovakia until 1989. Through the lives of four individuals, the novel explores the philosophical

Nicolas Cage: …a version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), an action comedy that references a number of his other movies. The actor also lent his voice to such animated films as The Croods (2013), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), and The Croods: A New Age (2020).

Adolf Ludwig Follen: …also the leader of the Unbedingten (Uncompromising Ones), or Schwarzen (Blacks), a radical student group whose ideas resulted in the assassination of the conservative dramatist August Kotzebue in 1819. Based on an idealized picture of the medieval Christian empire, Follen’s political ideas were aimed at incorporating the German states into…

Sigmund Freud: Religion, civilization, and discontents: …Unbehagen in der Kultur (1930; Civilization and Its Discontents), was devoted to what Rolland had dubbed the oceanic feeling. Freud described it as a sense of indissoluble oneness with the universe, which mystics in particular have celebrated as the fundamental religious experience. Its origin, Freud claimed, is nostalgia for the…

Toni Collette: …rapes in the limited series Unbelievable (2019); for her performance, she received an Emmy nomination. In Pieces of Her (2022), a series based on Karin Slaughter’s best-selling book, Collette played a mother with a mysterious past. Also in 2022 she starred with Colin Firth in The Staircase, a true-crime miniseries…

cosmology: Friedmann-Lemaître models: …as negatively curved spaces (“open” universes). The difference between the approaches of Friedmann and Lemaître is that the former set the cosmological constant equal to zero, whereas the latter retained the possibility that it might have a nonzero value. To simplify the discussion, only the Friedmann models are considered…

hydrocarbon: Physical properties: …number of carbon atoms, an unbranched alkane has a higher boiling point than any of its branched-chain isomers. This effect is evident upon comparing the boiling points (bp) of selected C8H18 isomers. An unbranched alkane has a more extended shape, thereby increasing the number of intermolecular attractive forces that must…

M. Night Shyamalan: Other successful films followed, including Unbreakable (2000), a superhero story about a train wreck victim (Willis) who, after suffering no injuries, realizes that he possesses special powers; Signs (2002), a science-fiction thriller about a preacher (Mel Gibson) who, after losing his faith, must contend with an alien invasion; and The…

Janet Jackson: Unbreakable (2015), billed as a comeback album, used contemporary electronic arrangements to bolster the velvety vocals that had established Jackson as an R&B star. In 2019 Jackson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tina Fey: …notably cocreated the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–19), a comedy about a woman who moves to New York after being rescued from a doomsday cult. In 2018 she added Broadway to her credits with the premiere of the musical Mean Girls. Fey wrote the script for the stage production,…

Kentucky Derby: History: …of 92 with the colt Unbridled.

Angelina Jolie: Directing: …the World War II drama Unbroken (2014). The script for the film, based on the true story of an Olympic runner and U.S. Air Force officer who became a Japanese prisoner of war after his plane crashed, was written by the Coen brothers. In 2015 she directed, wrote, and starred…

Cameroon: Political process: …parties; it was renamed the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement in 1985. After significant political unrest and a number of violent clashes, a constitutional amendment in 1990 established a multiparty system. Other major political parties include the National Union for Democracy and Progress, the Cameroon Democratic Union, and the Social Democratic…

Trinidad and Tobago: Independent Trinidad and Tobago: …the main opposition party, the United National Congress (UNC), which was supported chiefly by Indo-Trinidadians; the two Tobago seats went to the NAR, led by Robinson. The latter gave his support to the UNC, whose leader, Basdeo Panday, thus became prime minister. Panday was the first Indo-Trinidadian prime minister, and…

Battle of the Chosin Reservoir: Crossing into North Korea: …Inch’ŏn in September 1950, the United Nations Command (UNC), under the direction of U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman’s administration and the UN General Assembly, pursued the remnants of the communist Korean People’s Army into North Korea. On the orders of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of all allied forces in the…

uncanny valley, theorized relation between the human likeness of an object and a viewer’s affinity toward it. The hypothesis originated in a 1970 essay by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, in which he proposed that as human likeness increases in an object’s design, so does one’s affinity for the

Rubiaceae: Major genera and species: …is used in tanning, from Uncaria gambir; and kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), which is used in traditional medicine and recreationally as a stimulant. Some trees in the family provide useful timber. Common madder (Rubia tinctorum) was formerly cultivated for the red dye obtained from its roots (alizarin); the roots of

Mohegan: …a rebellion by the subchief Uncas led to Mohegan independence. After the destruction of the Pequot in 1637, most of the Pequot survivors and the former Pequot territories came under Mohegan control. Uncas strengthened his position by making an alliance with the English; by the end of King Philip’s War…

Milton, town (township), Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies along the Neponset River, just south of Boston. Settled in 1636 as a part of Dorchester, it was early known as Uncataquisset, from an Algonquian word meaning “head of tidewater,” and was separately incorporated in 1662. At

desertification: The global reach of desertification: According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the lives of 250 million people are affected by desertification, and as many as 135 million people may be displaced by desertification by 2045, making it one of the most severe environmental challenges facing humanity.

United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Nations (UN) organization established by the General Assembly in 1966 and fully operational in 1974. Headquartered in New York City, the UNDF, a semi-autonomous unit of the United Nations Development Programme, provides grants and loans to the

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), conference held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (June 3–14, 1992), to reconcile worldwide economic development with protection of the environment. The Earth Summit was the largest gathering of world leaders as of 1992, with 117 heads of

Kingsley Amis: Amis’s next novel, That Uncertain Feeling (1955), had a similar antihero. A visit to Portugal resulted in the novel I Like It Here (1958), while observations garnered from a teaching stint in the United States were expressed in the novel One Fat Englishman (1963).

Raoul Walsh: At Warner Brothers: The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, and White Heat: Walsh and Flynn reteamed for Uncertain Glory (1944), in which a French criminal must make the supreme sacrifice to save 100 hostages held by the Nazis. Their next collaboration, Objective, Burma! (1945), was one of the decade’s best—and grittiest—war movies, with Flynn starring in one of his finest performances as…

War Stories: 13 Modern Writers Who Served in War: Phil Klay: In 2022 Klay released Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War, which drew praise for its engrossing and introspective essays on how decades of involvement in foreign wars after September 11 have affected Americans’ sense of citizenship.

uncertainty principle, statement, articulated (1927) by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory. The very concepts of exact position and exact velocity together, in fact, have no

Theodore Hesburgh: …Education, the Rockefeller Foundation, the United Negro College Fund, the U.S. Overseas Development Council, the U.S. Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and the Harvard University Board of Overseers. He received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of…

Dexter Gordon: …acting debut in the film Unchained (1955).

Mark Wahlberg: …appeared in several movies, including Uncharted, about treasure hunters.

measurement system: Greeks and Romans: 73 inch); the inch (uncia or pollicus), or 112 Roman foot, was 24.67 mm (0.97 inch); and the palm (palmus), or 14 Roman foot, was 74 mm (2.91 inches).

libra: …of the libra, the Roman uncia, is the ancestor of the English ounce.

snow leopard, large long-haired Asian cat, classified as either Panthera uncia or Uncia uncia in the family Felidae. The snow leopard inhabits the mountains of central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, ranging from an elevation of about 1,800 metres (about 6,000 feet) in the winter to about 5,500

uncial, in calligraphy, ancient majuscular book hand characterized by simple, rounded strokes. It apparently originated in the 2nd century ad when the codex form of book developed along with the growing use of parchment and vellum as writing surfaces. Unlike its prototype square roman, uncial is

hookworm disease, parasitic infestation of humans, dogs, or cats caused by bloodsucking worms living in the small intestine—sometimes associated with secondary anemia. Several species of hookworms can cause the disease. Necator americanus, which ranges in size from 5 to 11 mm (0.2 to 0.4 inch), is

bird: Skeleton: …a flat, backward-pointing spur, the uncinate process, characteristic of birds. The sternum, ribs, and their articulations form the structural basis for a bellows action, by which air is moved through the lungs. Posterior to the thoracic vertebrae is a series of 10 to 23 fused vertebrae, the synsacrum, to which…

Ascomycota: …such as those that cause powdery mildew of grape (Uncinula necator), Dutch elm disease (Ophiostoma ulmi), chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), and apple scab (Venturia inequalis).

San Francisco Conference, international meeting (April 25–June 26, 1945) that established the United Nations. The basic principles of a worldwide organization that would embrace the political objectives of the Allies had been proposed at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944 and reaffirmed at the

avunculate: …typically involves for the maternal uncle a measure of authority over his nephews (and sometimes his nieces), coupled with specific responsibilities in their upbringing, initiation, and marriage. These children, in turn, often enjoy special rights to their uncle’s property, often taking precedence in inheritance over the uncle’s children.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: …Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010; Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives), which won the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes film festival. It tells the story of a dying man who is visited in turn by the ghost of his dead wife and that of his missing son…

John Hughes: …later appeared in the Hughes-penned Uncle Buck (1989).

Daniel Beard was an American illustrator, author, and outdoor enthusiast who was a pioneer of the youth scouting movement in the United States. Beard’s article on woodcraft appeared in the 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (see the Britannica Classic: woodcraft). Beard was the son of

Sholem Asch: …period belong Onkl Mozes (1918; Uncle Moses), Khayim Lederers tsurikkumen (1927; Chaim Lederer’s Return), and Toyt urteyl (1926; “Death Sentence”; Eng. trans. Judge Not—). These novels describe the cultural and economic conflicts experienced by eastern European Jewish immigrants in America.

Joel Chandler Harris: This and successive Uncle Remus stories won for Harris a secure place in American literature. The pattern was new: Uncle Remus, the wise, genial old black man, tells stories about Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other animals to the little son of a plantation owner and interweaves his…

Georgia: Cultural life: …American trickster tales (collected as Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings [1880]) that have remained a vital part of American folkloric tradition.

Georgia: Cultural life: …American trickster tales (collected as Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings [1880]) that have remained a vital part of American folkloric tradition.

Uncle Sam, popular symbol for the United States, usually associated with a cartoon figure having long white hair and chin whiskers and dressed in a swallow-tailed coat, vest, tall hat, and striped trousers. His appearance is derived from two earlier symbolic figures in American folklore: Yankee

Uncle Tom, title character in the antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (serialized 1851–52, published as a book in 1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Initially, the character Tom—called “Uncle” Tom in the Southern fashion of showing respect for an older man—was viewed sympathetically by the novel’s

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Criticism: The term Uncle Tom also became an insult used to describe a Black person who shows subservience to whites or is otherwise considered complicit with oppression by whites. This sense can be traced to at least the early 20th century, and early public use of it (c.…

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in serialized form in the United States in 1851–52 and in book form in 1852. An abolitionist novel, it achieved wide popularity, particularly among white readers in the North, by vividly dramatizing the experience of slavery. Uncle Tom’s