Museum Culture

In its first four months of operation, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture surpassed one million visits and quickly became a cherished, vital monument to the African American experience. And yet this accomplishment was never assured. In A Fool's Errand, founding director Lonnie Bunch tells his story of bringing his clear vision and leadership to realize this shared dream of many generations of Americans.

“Warm-hearted, clear-minded, and unexpectedly spellbinding, Meet Me at the Museum is a novel to savor.” — Annie Barrows, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society In Denmark, Professor Anders Larsen, an urbane man of facts, has lost his...

70 million years ago in what will one day become Mongolia, a successor to Velociraptor faces struggle after struggle. Times have grown cold and her eggs need constant care, and constant guard. How does a wolf sized raptor survive in the shadows of giants? How does she adapt to changing climates or circumstance? And what happens when a threat from her own past finds her new home?

Think you know art history? Think again. Every masterpiece has a double life. Behind the breathtaking beauty of the world’s greatest paintings, sculptures, and architectural wonders lies a hidden world of bizarre misunderstandings, scandalous lawsuits, financial greed, and esoteric secrets. In Mysteries and Curiosities in Art History, art historian and architect Simone de Bartolo takes you on a captivating, fast-paced journey behind the scenes of the art world. Leaving dry academic jargon behind, this book shines a light on the human, eccentric, and downright strange stories that shaped ...

In Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100 Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Robert L. Wilkins tells the story of how his curiosity about why there wasn't a national museum dedicated to African American history and culture became an obsession - eventually leading him to quit his job as an attorney when his wife was seven months pregnant with their second child, and make it his mission to help the museum become a reality.

A thought-provoking microhistory of the humble pocket that uncovers what pockets reveal about us—and why it matters. It’s a subject that stirs up plenty of passion: Why do men’s clothes have so many pockets and women’s so few? In her captivating book, Hannah Carlson, a lecturer in dress...

Bloomsbury presents The Longing for Less by Kyle Chayka, read by Christopher Ragland. New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice "More than just a story of an abiding cultural preoccupation, The Longing For Less peels back the commodified husk of minimalism to reveal something surprising and...

A passionate and imaginative exploration of wood – the material that shaped human history. As a material, wood has no equal in strength, resilience, adaptability and availability. It has been our partner in the cultural evolution from woodland foragers to engineers of our own destiny. Tracing...

A funny, inviting book about art for people who don’t know about “art”—featuring new artworks by David Shrigley. What is art, where do I find it, and once I’m in front of it, what am I supposed to think about it? Kate Bryan is a self-confessed art addict who has worked with art for...

The intimate, inspiring memoir of a “curator extraordinaire” (The Guardian)—part unputdownable coming-of-age story, part insider’s tour of the contemporary art world, part user’s manual on how to live a life driven by curiosity, conversation, and coincidence “A few years ago...

Whenever people come to see the Jewish Ghetto in Rome, they are a bit underwhelmed at first. Besides the synagogue and the many kosher restaurants, at first glance there does not seem to be a lot to see. However, the ghetto is a very interesting area with a painful history. Once you know this history and the places associated with it, the area becomes much more alive. The Roman Jewish community was one of the oldest in Europe and one of the last to gain its freedom. The story of the Roman Jews is different from those of other Jewish communities and not well known by the general public. For ...

Most books about Athens tell you where to get the best view of the Acropolis. This one gives you the story behind what you’re seeing. Backstory Atlas Athens: 10 Reasons We Can’t Stop Visiting The Ancient Argument – A Guide to Its Travel History is a short, curated read that makes travel richer. It explores how a city with no great river, no easy geography, and no obvious path to global importance became one of the most influential destinations in human history. This is not a guidebook or a long, heavy history lesson. It is a short, curated read for travelers who want to know the story...

*Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2026* A first-hand account of art, survival and resistance in wartime Ukraine Charlotte Higgins never imagined she would report on a war. But in the autumn of 2022, seven months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she travelled there to find...

Most books about Madrid tell you where to queue for the Prado. This one gives you the story behind what you’re seeing. Backstory Atlas Madrid: 10 Reasons We Can’t Stop Visiting The Deliberate City – A Guide to Its Travel History is a short, curated read that makes travel richer. It explores how a city with no great river, no natural harbor, and no obvious claim to greatness became one of Europe’s most important capitals — and why Madrid still feels so shaped by power, ambition, resilience, and reinvention. This is not a guidebook or a long, heavy history lesson. It is a short, ...

As consumers of art, and especially as fans, we have a host of tricky moral question to navigate: do the moral lives of artists affect the aesthetic quality of their work? In Drawing the Line, Erich Hatala Matthes argues that it doesn't matter whether we can separate the art from the artist, because we shouldn't. Matthes argues both that the lives of artists can play an important role in shaping our moral and aesthetic relationship to the artworks that we love and that these same artworks offer us powerful resources for grappling with the immorality of their creators. 

Most books about Paris tell you where to stand for the perfect Eiffel Tower view. This one gives you the story behind what you’re seeing. Backstory Atlas Paris: 10 Reasons We Can’t Stop Visiting The City of Light – A Guide to Its Travel History is a short, curated read that makes travel richer. It explores how a medieval river city became one of the world’s most influential destinations — and why Paris still feels so recognizable, theatrical, and deeply tied to ideas of beauty, culture, and everyday life. This is not a guidebook or a long, heavy history lesson. It is a short, ...

Unveiling the Heart of Paris: Are You Ready to Discover Its Magic? Do you dream of wandering the romantic streets of Paris, but feel overwhelmed by the planning? Have you ever wished for a guide that not only explores the iconic sights but also unveils the city's hidden gems? Sierra Quest crafts the ultimate companion for your journey through Paris in "The Essential Travel Guide for Unforgettable Destinations: Timeless Sightseeing in Paris, The Captivating City of Light." Why this guidebook is indispensable for your Paris adventure: Comprehensive Practical Tips: From visa requirements to ...

Stop guessing your travel logistics. Stop fighting vacation burnout. Discover the exact, system-driven framework to execute low-stress family adventures. It is a frustrating, familiar trap. You invest hard-earned money and endless hours mapping out a beautiful family getaway, pack the vehicle with gear, and watch your itinerary disintegrate into a chaotic spiral of tantrums, traffic congestion, and behavioral volatility. Suddenly, your historic vacation functions like a high-stress logistical gauntlet, inducing parental burnout and pushing your family to the limit. If your regional ...

The dream of capturing and organizing knowledge is as old as history. From the archives of ancient Sumeria and the Library of Alexandria to the Library of Congress and Wikipedia, humanity has wrestled with the problem of harnessing its intellectual output. The timeless quest for wisdom has been as much about information storage and retrieval as creative genius. In Cataloging the World, Alex Wright introduces us to a figure who stands out in the long line of thinkers and idealists who devoted themselves to the task.

A field guide to the memorials, museums, and practices that commemorate white supremacy in the United States—and how to reimagine a more deeply shared cultural infrastructure for the future Cultural infrastructure has been designed to maintain structures of inequality, and while it doesn’t...