Culture

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.

Connie B. Gay and the roots of country music militarization.

Black women activism within documentary films in the 1960s United States.

The world-spanning art of the Harlem Renaissance.

Larry David is the last of his kind—and in several ways.

Sinclair Lewis and the small-town science of yearning.

Allison Rudnick on the rise and fall of the 19th century "Literary Poster."

On Cormac McCarthy.

From the beginning of the recording industry, many voices have been suppressed and significant cultural history has been lost to prudery and censorship.

In 1968 Gaye shifted his musical vision to give voice to impoverished Black urban communities and the rising dissent against involvement in the Vietnam War.

The first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry and hit Billboard’s country music charts.

Beyoncé is following in the footsteps of many Black musicians before her.

“We await our moment, in pursuit of the picture that Corky envisaged, a portrait of a community that is too large and too brilliant.”

Climate change, colonization, and the Navajo Nation.

Caricatures of Irish immigrants—especially Irish women—have softened, but persist in characters whose Irishness is expressed in subtle cues.

Luis Valdez on his friendship with Cesar Chavez, his works in the National Film Registry, and a lifetime of activism.

When you dig beyond all purpose, digging becomes the purpose.

A reconsideration of Robert Frost at 150.

On Percival Everett’s “James.”

On the grand tradition of movies reflecting a deep distrust of those in charge.

In the years after her husband John’s death, the harpist discovered a sound all her own, a jazz rooted in acts of spirit and will.

It puts the people in the most peril in the center of the story: the people being systematically exploited, chained, whipped and raped.

As a feminist in the adult-film industry, she believed the answer wasn’t banning porn; it was better porn.

In a circumscribed universe, Black Americans have ceaselessly reinvented themselves.

136 books that made America think.

George Balanchine and Martha Graham trade places.

The historical novel isn’t cool. Popular? Yes. Enduring? Yes. A bit, well — for nerds? Also yes. Coolness lies in being at the right place at the right time.

Percival Everett transforms Mark Twain’s classic 'Huckleberry Finn' into a tragedy.

Galvanized by an act of racial violence, the band A Grain of Sand brought a new version of Asian American activism and identity to the folk music scene.

He moved to California during the Nazi era, and his music—which ranged from the lushly melodic to the rigorously atonal—caught the ears of everyone.