Baron Passfield of Passfield Corner in 1929. Impressed by the Soviet Union after their trip in 1932, the Webbs wrote Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation? (1935), in which they seemed to abandon their belief in gradual social and political evolution.
Webber, Andrew Lloyd See Andrew Lloyd Webber
Weber \'va-bar\, Carl Maria (Friedrich Ernst) von (b. Nov. 18, 1786, Eutin, Holstein—d. June 5, 1826, London, Eng.) German composer. Son of a musician and a theatre manager, and first cousin to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s wife, he was born with a deformed hip and was never strong. He took composition lessons with Michael Haydn (1737-1806) and with Abbe Vogler (1749-1814), who recommended him for a post in Breslau (1804-06). His operas began to have success, and he took over direction of the Prague Opera (1813-16), which he saved from ruin, but finding little time for composition, he resigned. Showing signs of the tuberculosis that would kill him, he began to compose more prolifically. Appointed kapellmeister for life in Dresden, he began work on his mas¬ terpiece, the opera The Freeshooter (1821), the premiere of which made him an international star. The libretto for his next opera, Euryanthe (1823), was so clumsy that its admirable music never succeeded, and his final opera, Oberon (1826), composed for London, was a success there but not elsewhere.
Weber Vva-bsrV Max (b. April 21, 1864, Erfurt, Prussia—d. June 14, 1920, Munich, Ger.) German sociologist and political economist. Son of a wealthy liberal politician and a Calvinist mother, Weber was a compul¬ sively diligent scholar who suffered occasional nervous collapses. Insights derived from his own experience inform his most famous and controver¬ sial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-05), which examines the relationship between Calvinist (or Puritan) morality, compulsive labour, bureaucracy, and economic success under capitalism (see Protestant ethic). Weber also wrote penetratingly on social phenom¬ ena such as charisma and mysticism, which he saw as antithetical to the modern world and its underlying process of rationalization. His efforts helped establish sociology as an academic discipline in Germany, and his work continues to stimulate scholarship. Through his insistence on the need for objectivity and his analysis of human action in terms of moti¬ vation, he profoundly influenced sociological theory. His voluminous writings, mostly published posthumously, include Economy and Society (2 vol., 1922-25) and General Economic History (1923).
Weber-Fechner law See Weber's law
Webern Wa-borM, Anton (Friedrich Wilhelm von) (b. Dec. 3, 1883, Vienna—d. Sept. 15, 1945, Mittersill, near Salzburg, Austria) Aus¬ trian composer. He learned piano and cello as a child and earned a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna, specializing in the music of the 15th-century Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac. In 1904 he and his friend Alban Berg began composition lessons with Arnold Schoenberg, and Webern was soon combining atonality with complex counterpoint in the manner of Isaac, producing works distinctive for their extreme brevity and delicacy. While Schoenberg was developing the 12-tone method (see seri- AUSm) of composition into the 1920s, Webern was independently moving in a similar direction. After Schoenberg presented the system in 1924, Webern adopted it, composing relatively extended pieces such as the Symphony (1928), Concerto (1934), and Variations for Piano (1936). He earned a liv¬ ing most of his life as a conductor. During Austria’s occupation at the end of World War II, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American sol¬ dier. Though he was little appreciated during his lifetime, his works became highly influential internationally in the postwar decades.
Weber's law Vva-borz\ or Weber-Fechner law Vfek-nor\ In psy¬ chophysics, a historically important law quantifying the perception of change in a given stimulus. Originated by the German physiologist Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795-1878) in 1834 and elaborated by his student Gustav Theodor Fechner, the law states that the change in a stimulus that will be just noticeable is a constant ratio of the original stimulus. It was later shown not to hold for extremes of stimulation.
Webster, Benjjamin Francis) (b. March 27,1909, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—d. Sept. 20, 1973, Amsterdam, Neth.) U.S. tenor saxophonist. Influ¬ enced by Coleman Hawkins and Johnny Hodges, he played in several impor¬ tant swing bands before joining that of Duke Ellington in 1940. After 1943 he worked mostly as the leader of small ensembles. He moved to Copen¬ hagen, Den., in 1964. His sensual, breathy tone and wide vibrato were his trademarks, and he became one of the master interpreters of jazz ballads.
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2040 I Webster ► Weed
Webster, Daniel (b. Jan. 18, 1782, Salisbury, N.H., U.S.—d. Oct. 24, 1852, Marshfield, Mass.) U.S. law¬ yer and politician. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1813-17). After moving to Boston (1816), he built a prosperous law practice and represented Massachu¬ setts in the House (1823-27). He argued several precedent-setting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including the Dartmouth Col¬ lege case, McCulloch v. Maryland, and Gibbons v. Ogden. Elected to the U.S. Senate (1827-41, 1845-50), he became famous as an orator for his speeches supporting the Union and opposing the nullification movement and its advocates, John C. Calhoun and Robert Y. Hayne. As U.S. secre¬ tary of state (1841-43, 1850-52) he negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty to settle the Canada-Maine border dispute.
Webster, John (b. c. 1580, Lon¬ don, Eng.—d. c. 1632) British play¬ wright. Little is known of his life, but he may have been an actor who began writing plays later in his career. He collaborated with several leading dramatists, including Thomas Dekker. Webster is best remem¬ bered for the revenge tragedies The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess ofMalfi (published 1623), both of which concern the murders and bloody deeds that arise out of family quarrels among the Italian nobility. They are often considered the greatest 17th-century English tragedies apart from those of William Shakespeare.
Webster, Lake See Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggag-
OGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG
Webster, Noah (b. Oct. 16,1758, West Hartford, Conn., U.S.—d. May 28, 1843, New Haven, Conn.) U.S. lexicographer and writer. He attended Yale University and then studied law. While working as a teacher in New York, he began his lifelong efforts to promote a distinctively American education. His first step was publishing A Grammatical Institute of the English Language, including The American Spelling Book (1783), the famed “Blue-Backed Speller” that went on to sell some 100 million cop¬ ies. An ardent Federalist, he founded two pro-Federalist newspapers (1793) and wrote articles on politics and many other subjects. He pro¬ duced his first dictionary in 1806; in 1807 he began work on his landmark American Dictionary of the English Language (1828; 2nd ed. 1840). Reflecting his principle that spelling, grammar, and usage should be based on the living, spoken language, it was instrumental in establishing the dignity and vitality of American English. In 1821 Webster cofounded Amherst College. The rights to the dictionary were purchased from his estate by George and Charles Merriam, whose firm developed the Merriam-Webster dictionary series.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842) Treaty between the U.S. and Britain establishing the northeastern boundary of the U.S. Negotiated by U.S. secretary of state Daniel Webster and Britain’s ambassador Lord Ash¬ burton, it also provided for Anglo-U.S. cooperation in the suppression of the slave trade. It fixed the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, granted the U.S. navigation rights on the St. John River, pro¬ vided for extradition in nonpolitical criminal cases, and established a joint naval system for suppressing the slave trade off the African coast.