The poets E. E. Cummings and T. S. Eliot offer contrasting views of spring—and of mankind in general. Which captures the soul of the season?

We owe a debt of gratitude to the countless engineers and pilots who have managed to make air travel among the safest things human beings do.

For Daniel Chester French, sculpting was a means of lighting the world with optimism.

Kind of Blue is a landmark in the history of jazz, and even after sixty years, it still sounds fresh.

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s bestseller on race relations provoked many responses, but only Jason Hill confronts the core of Coates’s argument.

Hastings delivers well-founded judgments about war in prose that brings to life the experiences of those who fought them.

Timbs’s victory marks a significant advance for the protection of individual rights and provides a revealing glimpse into the crucial role that political philosophy plays in constitutional law.

For all his pessimism, Conrad held that a life of unfaltering conviction is a meaningful one.

Sheets created a contemporary art appropriate for a lender proud of its part in transforming the California desert into a land of innovation and plenty.

At a time when popular culture too often celebrates life’s negatives, it’s refreshing to witness the flourishing of a musical form that focuses on joy, fun, beauty, and nahenahe.

The romantic composers were an eccentric lot, but even so, Alexander Scriabin is in a world of his own.

Sargent's legacy will forever be cherished by those who long for an art that expresses life as it could and ought to be.

It may seem audacious to spend millions on such fleeting beauty—but it’s emblematic of a society rooted in the “the pursuit of happiness.”

These less-than-obvious gift ideas are likely to provide great enjoyment and have a lasting impact.

Ka‘ahumanu overthrew Hawaii's brutal religion. Tragically, that was not enough. The Hawaiian people, like all people, needed the insights of philosophy.