Culture

How a style steeped in American elitism took over the world.

“The Lost Colony” had dramatized American mythology in the Outer Banks since 1937 with White actors as Indians. Now, Native performers are rewriting the story.

The actor and martial arts star also wanted to be regarded as a poet-philosopher.

The Universal Hip Hop Museum is poised to bring an economic and cultural infusion to the borough where the genre was born and bred.

Smith collected rare books, paper airplanes, Pennsylvania Dutch tools—and harvested the folk music recordings that changed a generation.

A wrestler, a Sunday school teacher, and a mystery man walk into a studio.

Veterans of the 1848 German revolution immigrated to America with three passions burning in their hearts: barbells, beer, and socialism.

The Sugarhill Gang song remains one of rap's most beloved. But it took serendipity, a book of rhymes, and an agreement to settle a lawsuit for it to survive.

James McBride’s new novel tells a story of solidarity between Black and Jewish communities.

A Smithsonian curator John Troutman and a blues musician discuss a new folk album, "Playing for the Man at the Door," from late chronicler Mack McCormick's collection.

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.

A look at "Biography Of A Phantom", Robert McCormick's book about blues legend Robert Johnson.

It’s not a flavor; it’s a vibe.

On John Sturges’s “Bad Day at Black Rock” and Japanese America.

Watching 'Oppenheimer' with the author of a definitive account of the Manhattan Project.

“It was made under the worst of conditions,” the filmmaker reveals in a new book. “People versus the eternal sea. The sea won the battle.”

What were Americans' immediate responses to "A Christmas Carol," and how did Dickens' reading tours and eventual death reshape its meaning?

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.

Rollins never wavered in his determination to get things right, and often that meant reinventing himself and, along the way, jazz as well.

The story of the Little Longfellow War.

The country song that pits idyllic country life against the corruption of the city is a well-worn trope. Aldean's song reveals the dark heart of the tradition.

Songwriting credits since 1958, broken down by gender.

A recent biography dives into the choreographer's role as both an artist and figure of early American modernism.

Before Christopher Nolan’s "Oppenheimer," the world nearly got Ayn Rand’s "Tribute to Free Enterprise."

On the drive-in movie culture that captured a yearning for fast cars on dusty roads.

On the mismatched sporting advice of Clair Bee and John R. Tunis.

How French cuisine became beloved among status-hungry diners in the United States, from Thomas Jefferson to Kanye West.

And the origins of the term “Kafkaesque.”

The Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol wouldn’t exist without the artistry of an enslaved man named Philip Reed.

A collection of previously unpublished stories offers a portrait of the playwright as a young artist.