Sacred and high art can sometimes feel distant or underwhelming to modern viewers. Perhaps their limitations are intentional.

One document played a principal part in forming a nation and changing the world—the Declaration of Independence.

Georgios Varouxakis’s ‘The West: The History of an Idea’ debates the origins, heritage, evolution, and future of Western civilization.

A new biography features the crossover singer and songwriter who never forgot her country roots.