Miami Beach boasts the world’s greatest concentration of art deco buildings, which reflect a distinct era in American history—along with the can-do attitude that has defined the nation.

“This is a picture,” reads one description of Emmanuel Leutze‘s masterpiece, “by the sight of which, in this weary and exhausted time, one can recover health and strength. . . . [It] has power to work upon the hearts, and inflame the spirits of all that behold it.”

Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci distills this complex Renaissance man whose achievements in art and science have enriched posterity.

What led a devout Puritan minister to precede Thomas Jefferson in calling for a separation between church and state? John M. Barry answers this question.

Joseph Kellard reviews Seeing Central Park: The Unofficial Guide to the World’s Greatest Urban Park, by Sara Cedar Miller.

Joseph Kellard reviews New York New York, by Richard Berenholtz.

The extravagant window displays at Bergdorf Goodman department store on New York’s Fifth Avenue are a popular draw this time of year, and for good reason. These dazzling arrangements entice pedestrians into the store and inspire crowds to stop, snap photos, and marvel. The artful windows celebrate commerce, wealth, and high-end goods.

The Gold Standard Institute will host presentations on the moral foundation of capitalism and the need for a gold-based monetary system. The November 1 event in Manhattan, “The Gold Standard: Both Good and Necessary,” will feature economist Keith Weiner, who will speak on “The Urgency of the Gold Standard”; and philosopher Andrew Bernstein, who will present “The Moral Basis of Capitalism.”

Renowned photographer Richard Berenholtz has been commissioned to document the construction of 432 Park Avenue, a building that, at nearly 1,400 feet will be the tallest residential tower in New York and the Western Hemisphere. Joseph Kellard recently talked with Berenholtz about his work on 432 Park, Manhattan’s ever-changing skyline, and his fascination with the construction process.

Joseph Kellard interviews Donna Hassler about the works of Daniel Chester French, the great American artist perhaps best known for his sculpture of Abraham Lincoln housed at the Lincoln Memorial. Ms. Hassler is executive director of Chesterwood, which was French's summer home and studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and which is now a historic site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Dianne Durante has released an Android app based on her book Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan. The app, produced by Guides Who Know, features more than three hours of video on the fifty-four sculptures that appear in the book, including Continents by Daniel Chester French, Sherman Monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and the Statue of Liberty.

Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs succeeded in large part because they passionately, selfishly loved what they were creating and marketing—books and music, respectively—and they developed innovative ways to deliver the products to consumers who love them too. Here’s to passions, profits, and the people who pursue them.

The Diplomat, an ESPN documentary about two-time Olympic champion figure skater Katarina Witt of East Germany (the former German Democratic Republic, or GDR), is released to video February 18. The film serves as a reminder—or a revelation—of the crushing grip communist dictatorships held on the people who “lived” under them.

After barbarians destroyed the towering, 110-story World Trade Center towers on 9/11, some people wondered whether Americans would continue to regard outstandingly tall buildings as practical and worth the newly-realized risk. American developers are putting that wonder to rest, with a burgeoning new era of skyscrapers in New York City.…

[caption id="attachment_9808" align="alignright" width="300"] Image: Randstad Canada[/caption] ABC’s reality show Shark Tank offers a rare showcase of the character and abilities that entrepreneurs and investors cultivate to create and build businesses. The show features entrepreneurs who pitch their ideas to five investor “sharks” and seek to negotiate financing. On past…