Carl Van Vechten, a best-selling novelist, archivist, photographer, and negrophile promoted black culture during the era known as the Harlem Renaissance, and beyond. The Harlem Renaissance was a black movement, but it needed whiteness in order to thrive. Carl Van Vechten embodied that necessary...

Frank Turner, John Hay Whitney Professor of History and the director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University describes the life and writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker and historian best known for "Democracy in America," published after his...