Culture

A documentary about his life and circle is a study in complicity.

In 19th-century New England, rule-breaking Yankees were a source of national pride.

“¿DEFACEMENT?,” Inspired by the 1983 Police Murder of Michael Stewart.

The recent passing of Pal Benko and Shelby Lyman draws the curtain on an American period that produced some of the game’s most sparkling play.

There's room for the haute and folk traditions but the market-driven style taking over is the most problematic.

A brave band of scholars set out to save us from racism and sexism. What happened?

It’s surprisingly hard to protect beloved public art.

It was a struggle to even get the president to go to a game.

An abstract expressionist and master of collage, an intellectual and outspoken activist, Bearden evolved as much as his times did.

Eighty years ago, MGM’s sparkly pink rendering of Glinda expanded American pop culture’s definition of free-flying women.

Looking to Louisa May Alcott's heroine for inspiration.

Far from wallowing in nostalgia, Tarantino is using alternative history to critique conventional Hollywood endings.

What the author of "If—" learned about empire from the United States

Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviors who could combat the Nazi threat.

A review of Casey Cep's new book on Harper Lee's never written true crime book, "The Reverend."

It also inspired my own scholarship on the national anthem.

Maybelle Carter witnessed the dawn of the recording era and helped create country music as one of the genre's biggest acts.

These maps drawn by Indigenous artists depict a union of visual traditions during the 16th century.

One of the most indispensable guitarists of all time, Carter was a quiet revolutionary.

When the counterculture optimism receded, things got ugly.

For over 100 years, the bubbly beverage has gone in and out of vogue as a wellness tonic.

It lets us avoid harder questions about our culture.

In their time, “Jaws” and “Nashville” were regarded as Watergate films, and both were in production as the Watergate disaster played its final act.

Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?

It became the first and only X-rated movie to win a best picture Oscar.

Contending with the orientalist fears and fantasies of a young nation.

For Herman Melville, the color white could be horrifyingly bleak.

With ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,’ Tarantino slakes his thirst for nostalgia while playing with another piece of history.

In the 50s and 60s, steamy novels about lesbian relationships, marketed to men, gave closeted women needed representation.

Margret and Hans A. Rey, the reluctant parents of a cartoon ape-child, always yearned to leave children’s literature behind.