Baker, Sara Josephine (b. Nov. 15, 1873, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., U.S.—d. Feb. 22, 1945, New York, N.Y.) U.S. physician. She became the first American woman to receive a doctorate in public health. As the first director of New York City’s Division of Child Hygiene (the first public agency devoted to child health), she helped make New York’s infant- mortality rates the lowest of any major American city. She helped found the American Child Hygiene Association and organized what became the Children’s Welfare Federation of New York. She published five books on child hygiene.
Baker v. Carr (1962) U.S. Supreme Court case that forced the Ten¬ nessee legislature to reapportion itself on the basis of population. The case ended the traditional overrepresentation of rural areas in the legislature and established that the court may intervene in apportionment cases. The court ruled that every citizen’s vote should carry equal weight, regardless
Josephine Baker.
H. ROGER-VIOLLET
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
152 I Bakersfield ► Balaklava
of the voter’s place of residence. Its ruling in Reynolds v. Sims (1964) built on Baker by requiring virtually every state legislature to be reap¬ portioned, ultimately causing political power in most states to shift from rural to urban areas.
Bakersfield City (pop., 2000: city, 247,057; metro, area, 661,645), southern California, U.S. Situated on the Kern River in the San Joaquin Valley, it was founded in 1869 by Thomas Baker. It was an agricultural area when the discovery of the Kern River oil fields in 1899 sparked a petroleum boom. The city was quickly rebuilt after a major earthquake in 1952. Nearby vineyards produce about a quarter of the wine made in California.
Bakewell, Robert (b. 1725, Dishley, Leicestershire, Eng.—d. Oct. 1, 1795, Dishley) English agriculturist.
He revolutionized English sheep and cattle breeding by methodical selec¬ tion, inbreeding, and culling. He was one of the first to breed sheep and cattle for meat and the first to estab¬ lish on a large scale the practice of letting animals for stud. His farm became famous as a model of scien¬ tific management.
Bakhtin \b9k-'ten\, Mikhail (Mikhailovich) (b. Nov. 17, 1895,
Orel, Russia—d. March 7, 1975,
Moscow, U.S.S.R.) Russian literary theorist and philosopher of language.
His works frequently offended the Soviet authorities, and in 1929 he was exiled from Vitsyebsk to Kazakh¬ stan. He is especially known for Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (1929), which advanced theories that he further developed in The Dialogic Imagination (1975). His wide-ranging ideas significantly influenced West¬ ern thinking in cultural history, linguistics, literary theory, and aesthetics.
Bakhtyarl or Bakhtiyari or Bakhtiari \bak-'te-3-re\ Any member of a community of nomadic pastoral tent dwellers of western Iran. They speak a dialect of Luri (a language related to Modern Persian) and are mostly Shi'ite Muslims. Their two tribal groups are the Chahar Lang and Haft Lang; the position of leader of all the Bakhtyarl alternates every two years between the chiefs of the two tribal groups. Many chiefs have been influential in national public affairs and have held office. Bakhtyarl women are normally better-educated and freer than other Muslim women in Iran.
baking Process of cooking by dry heat, especially in an oven. Baked products include bread, cookies, pies, and pastries. Ingredients used in baking include flour, water, leavening agents (baker’s yeast, baking soda, baking powder), shortening (fats, oils), eggs, milk, and sugars. These are mixed together to create dough or batter, which is then transferred to a pan or sheet and heated. Leavening agents produce gas that becomes trapped in the dough, causing it to rise. Shortening makes doughs more easily workable and the final product more tender. Egg whites are used to produce a light, airy texture, and yolks contribute colour, flavour, and texture. Milk is used for moistening and flavouring and sugars for sweet¬ ening and aiding fermentation.
baking soda See bicarbonate of soda
Bakke \'ba-ke\ decision formally Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that ruled unconstitutional the use of fixed quotas for minor¬ ity applicants at professional schools. At issue was a state medical school’ s affirmative action program that, because it required a certain num¬ ber of minority admissions, twice denied entrance to an otherwise quali¬ fied white candidate (Allan Bakke). Though the court outlawed quota programs on the grounds that they violated the equal-protection clause of the Constitution of the United States, it allowed colleges to use race as a factor in making college admissions decisions.
Bakongo See Kongo
Bakst Vbakst\, Leon orig. Lev Samuilovich Rosenberg (b. Jan. 27, 1866, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. Dec. 28, 1924, Paris, France) Rus¬
sian painter and stage designer. He attended the Imperial Academy of Arts at St. Petersburg and studied in Paris. In 1898 he cofounded the journal Mir Iskusstva (“World of Art”) with Sergey Diaghilev. He began designing scenery for the imperial theatres in 1900. In Paris he designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev’s new Ballets Russes. His bold designs and sump¬ tuous colours, conveying an exotic “Orientalism,” won him international fame. His designs for a London production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty in 1921 are regarded as his greatest work.
Baku \ba-'kii\ City (pop., 2003 est.: 1,828,800), capital of Azerbaijan. Located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea at the sea’s best harbour, Baku has long been inhabited. By the 11th century ad it was in the pos¬ session of the Shirvan shahs, who made it their capital in the 12th cen¬ tury. In 1723 Peter I (the Great) took Baku, but it was returned to Persia in 1735; Russia recaptured it in 1806. It was the capital of the short-lived independent state of Azerbaijan (1918-20) and in 1920 became the capi¬ tal of the new Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. The basis of Baku’s economy is petroleum. The city’s historic centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.
bakufu \ba-'ku-fu\ Japanese "tent government" Military rule of the country by a hereditary SHOGUN, as opposed to rule by the imperial court and the emperor. There have been three periods of bakufu govern¬ ment in Japanese history: Minamoto Yoritomo established the Kamakura bakufu (see Kamakura period) at the end of the 12th century, Ashikaga Takauji established the Muromachi bakufu (see Muromachi period) in the early 14th century, and Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo bakufu (see Tokugawa period) at the beginning of the 17th century. The Edo bakufu was the most successful, a time of peace and prosperity that lasted over 250 years. See also daimyo; Hojo family; jito.
Bakunin Vbo-'kim-yonN, Mikhail (Aleksandrovich) (b. May 30,
1814, Premukhino, Russia—d. July 1, 1876, Bern, Switz.) Russian anar¬ chist and political writer. He traveled in western Europe and was active in the Revolutions of 1848. After attending the Slav congress in Prague, he wrote the manifesto “An Appeal to Slavs” (1848). Arrested for revo¬ lutionary intrigues in Germany (1849), he was sent to Russia and exiled to Siberia. He escaped in 1861 and returned to western Europe, where he continued his militant anarchist teachings. At the First International (1872) he engaged in a famous quarrel with Karl Marx, which split the European revolutionary movement.