Thomas Aquinas, Saint See Aquinas, Saint Thomas
Thomism Vto-.mi-zonA Philosophical and theological system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas. It holds that the human soul is immortal and is a unique subsistent form, that human knowledge is based on sensory expe¬ rience but also depends on the mind’s reflective capacity, and that all creatures have a natural tendency to love God that can be perfected and elevated by grace and application. In the 20th century, Thomism was developed by Etienne Gilson (1884-1978) and Jacques Maritain. After World War II, Thomists faced three major tasks: to develop an adequate philosophy of science, to account for phenomenological and psychiatric findings, and to evaluate the ontologies of existentialism and naturalism.
Thompson, Dorothy (b. July 9, 1894, Lancaster, N.Y., U.S.—d. Jan. 30, 1961, Lisbon, Port.) U.S. journalist. After World War I she became a
freelance correspondent in Europe.
Her reporting on the Nazis so infuri¬ ated Adolf Hitler that in 1934 she became the first U.S. correspondent expelled from Germany. Her column “On the Record” was exceedingly popular and was syndicated from 1941 to 1958 in as many as 170 daily newspapers. Her many books include I Saw Hitler! (1932), Refu¬ gees (1938), Let the Record Speak (1939), and The Courage to Be Happy (1957). From 1928 to 1942 she was married to the novelist Sin¬ clair Lewis.
Thompson, E(dward)
P(almer) (b. Feb. 3,1924—d. Aug.
28, 1993, Upper Wick, Worcester,
Eng.) British historian. He served in Italy in World War II and taught at the universities of Leeds (1948-65) and Warwick (1965-71). He left the Communist Party in 1956 when Soviet troops crushed the Hungarian uprising but remained a Marxist and socialist all his life. His best-known work is The Making of the English Working Class (1963), an acclaimed study of the period 1780-1832. Among his other books is Whigs and Hunters (1975). From the late 1970s he devoted much of his time to the antinuclear movement.
Thompson, Emma (b. April 15, 1959, London, Eng.) British actress and screenwriter. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, she acted on stage and television and won acclaim in the miniseries Fortunes of War (1987). While married to Kenneth Branagh (1989-94), she appeared in several of his films, including Henry V (1989), Dead Again (1991), and Much Ado About Nothing (1993). She later starred in Howards End (1992, Academy Award), The Remains of the Day (1993), Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won an Academy Award for best screen¬ play, and Primary Colors (1998).
Thompson, Hunter S(tockton) (b. July 18, 1937, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—d. Feb. 20, 2005, Woody Creek, Colo.) U.S. journalist. He had run-ins with the law as a young man and served in the U.S. Air Force. In 1965 he infiltrated the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang and published his account, Hell’s Angels, in 1967. His psychedelic-drug romp, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), is considered a contemporary classic; it was made into a film in 1998. Other books include Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973), The Great Shark Hunt (1979), and Better Than Sex (1994). He created the genre known as “gonzo journal¬ ism,” a style created from (by his own account) accident and desperation, and his writing—idiosyncratic and subjective in the extreme, and often wildly funny—gained him a large underground following. Thompson died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Thomson, J(ohn) Edgar (b. Feb. 10, 1808, Springfield Township, Pa., U.S.—d. May 27, 1874, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. civil engineer and railroad executive. He joined the Pennsylvania engineer corps at age 19. In 1847 he was hired as chief engineer of the newly incorporated Penn¬ sylvania Railroad Co., which aimed to compete with trade lines to the west originating in New York and other eastern states. He became its president in 1852 and oversaw construction of a railway that crossed the Alleghenies without using inclined grades. Over the next 22 years, Thom¬ son consolidated a network of lines from Philadelphia to Chicago, expand¬ ing the company’s track from 250 to 6,000 mi (400-10,000 km).
Thomson, Sir J(oseph) J(ohn) (b. Dec. 18, 1856, Cheetham Hill, near Manchester, Eng.—d. Aug. 30, 1940, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) English physicist. Educated at the University of Cambridge, he taught there at the Cavendish Laboratory (1884-1918), which he developed into a world-renowned institution, and was master of Trinity College (1918— 40). In 1897 he showed that cathode rays are rapidly moving particles, and, by measuring their displacement by electric and magnetic fields, he determined that these particles were nearly 2,000 times less massive than the lightest known atomic particle. Originally called corpuscles by Thom¬ son, the particles are now known as electrons. His discovery helped revo¬ lutionize the knowledge of atomic structure. In 1903 he suggested a discontinuous theory of light, foreshadowing Albert Einstein’s later theory
April 6, 1892, Woodington, Ohio,
Lowell Thomas
BROWN BROTHERS
Dorothy Thompson, 1934.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1902 I Thomson ► Thorndike
of photons. He later discovered isotopes and invented mass spectrometry. In 1906 Thomson received a Nobel Prize for his research into the elec¬ trical conductivity of gases. Throughout his life he was noted as an out¬ standing teacher, and seven of his assistants also became Nobel laureates.
Thomson (of Fleet), Roy (Herbert) Thomson, 1st Baron (b.
June 5, 1894, Toronto, Ont., Can.—d. Aug. 4, 1976, London, Eng.) Canadian-British publisher. Thomson began acquiring radio stations and newspapers in Ontario in the 1930s; later he expanded his interests to Britain and the U.S. and added television holdings. In 1952 he bought The Scotsman newspaper and went to Edinburgh to run it. In 1959 he purchased the Kemsley group of newspapers, the largest in Britain, which included the Sunday Times. In 1967 he made his most important purchase, The Times of London, and thereafter made a major investment in it, pro¬ viding it with financial stability. In the 1970s Thomson joined a consor¬ tium that was successful in discovering two oil fields. It sold The Times in 1981 and divested interests in U.K. newspapers in 1995. The acquisi¬ tion of various publishing and other interests continued into the 21st cen¬ tury, and the Thomson Corp. is today one of the largest publishing conglomerates in the world.
Thomson, Virgil (b. Nov. 25, 1896, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—d. Sept. 30, 1989, New York, N.Y.) U.S. composer and critic. He attended Har¬ vard University, intending to become a pianist and organist. Studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger (1921), he met the French composers known as Les Six and their circle and began to compose. While residing in Paris (1925^10), he met Gertrude Stein, with whom he wrote the operas Four Saints in Three Acts (1928) and The Mother of Us All (1946), affecting a charmingly naive style. Back in New York City, he served as music critic of the Herald Tribune (1940-54); his gracefully written criticism was respected for its concern with music rather than performers. His other works include the film scores The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) and The Louisiana Story (1949, Pulitzer Prize).
Thonet \'to-net\, Michael (b. July 2, 1796, Boppard, Trier —d. March 3, 1871, Vienna, Austria) German Austrian pioneer in the industrializa¬ tion of furniture manufacture. He developed a system of steam-bent veneers c. 1830 and created light, curvilinear chairs. By 1856 he had per¬ fected the bending of solid beechwood with heat and began mass pro¬ duction of bentwood furniture. He set up factories in Hungary and Moravia and opened salons from Moscow to Chicago. By 1870 he was producing furniture in hitherto unheard-of quantities. His furniture is still being manufactured today.