Art, Music & Culture
Individual topics classified under "Art, Music & Culture", ranked by how many awards the books carrying each one have won combined. Open a topic to see its most-awarded books.
- 1
Harlem Renaissance
8 books
9
wins
97
score
- The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke · Jeffrey C. Stewart3 wins · 31 score
- The Life of Langston Hughes, Vol. I: 1902-1941 · Arnold Rampersad2 wins · 24 score
- W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963 · David Levering Lewis2 wins · 21 score
- Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography · Zora Neale Hurston1 win · 5 score
- The Life of Langston Hughes · Arnold Rampersad1 win · 5 score
- 2
Abstract expressionism
4 books
5
wins
68
score
- de Kooning: An American Master · Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan4 wins · 44 score
- Jackson Pollock: An American Saga · Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith1 win · 16 score
- Arshile Gorky: His Life and Work · Hayden Herrera0 wins · 4 score
- Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York · Alexander Nemerov0 wins · 4 score
- 3
Artistic life
4 books
5
wins
64
score
- 4
Photography
5 books
4
wins
51
score
- Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits · Linda Gordon2 wins · 17 score
- Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis · Timothy Egan1 win · 14 score
- Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous · Christopher Bonanos1 win · 12 score
- Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work · Ben Maddow0 wins · 4 score
- Looking for the Light: The Hidden Life and Art of Marion Post Wolcott · Paul Hendrickson0 wins · 4 score
- 5
Boxing
5 books
3
wins
29
score
- Ali: A Life · Jonathan Eig1 win · 12 score
- Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner · F. X. Toole1 win · 5 score
- Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson · Geoffrey C. Ward1 win · 5 score
- King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero · David Remnick0 wins · 4 score
- Cut Time: An Education at the Fights · Carlo Rotella0 wins · 3 score
- 6
Art history
11 books
2
wins
46
score
- Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954 · Hilary Spurling1 win · 12 score
- Pre-Columbian Art · Jose Alcina Franch1 win · 5 score
- Arts in America: A Bibliography · Bernard Karpel0 wins · 4 score
- Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (biography of Caravaggio) · Andrew Graham-Dixon0 wins · 4 score
- Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Friedrich to Rothko · Robert Rosenblum0 wins · 4 score
- 7
1960s counterculture
4 books
2
wins
40
score
- The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History · Norman Mailer2 wins · 24 score
- The White Album · Joan Didion0 wins · 8 score
- Buried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin · Myra Friedman0 wins · 4 score
- Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina · David Hajdu0 wins · 4 score
- 8
American cultural history
8 books
2
wins
40
score
- An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood · Neal Gabler1 win · 8 score
- Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America · Jackson Lears1 win · 8 score
- Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America · Richard Slotkin0 wins · 4 score
- Harlem Renaissance · Nathan Huggins0 wins · 4 score
- Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture · William Leach0 wins · 4 score
- 9
American art history
7 books
2
wins
37
score
- Art and Life in America · Oliver W. Larkin1 win · 12 score
- Charles Willson Peale · Charles Coleman Sellers1 win · 8 score
- America as Art · Joshua C. Taylor0 wins · 4 score
- Edward Weston: Fifty Years; The Definitive Volume of His Photographic Work · Ben Maddow0 wins · 4 score
- John Sloan: Painter and Rebel · John Loughery0 wins · 4 score
- 10
Cultural history
5 books
2
wins
37
score
- American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876 · Lawrence A. Cremin1 win · 12 score
- The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century · Alex Ross0 wins · 9 score
- Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950–1963 · Kevin Starr1 win · 8 score
- From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present · Jacques Barzun0 wins · 4 score
- On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History · Nicholas A. Basbanes0 wins · 4 score
- 11
Consumer culture
6 books
2
wins
29
score
- Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America · Jackson Lears1 win · 8 score
- Remaking the American Patient: How Madison Avenue and Modern Medicine Turned Patients Into Consumers · Nancy Tomes1 win · 8 score
- Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture · William Leach0 wins · 4 score
- Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West · Peter N. Stearns0 wins · 3 score
- Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture · Kathy Peiss0 wins · 3 score
- 12
Classical music
3 books
2
wins
24
score
- 13
American culture
3 books
2
wins
21
score
- 14
Sports culture
3 books
2
wins
13
score
- 15
Music history
5 books
1
win
33
score
- One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time · Craig Brown1 win · 12 score
- The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century · Alex Ross0 wins · 9 score
- American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900–1950 · Alec Wilder0 wins · 4 score
- Charles Ives: A Life in Music · Jan Swafford0 wins · 4 score
- The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music · Colin Asher0 wins · 4 score
- 16
Architecture
5 books
1
win
23
score
- God's Architect: Pugin & the Building of Romantic Britain · Rosemary Hill1 win · 8 score
- Kicked a Building Lately? · Ada Louise Huxtable0 wins · 4 score
- Lost New York · Nathan Silver0 wins · 4 score
- The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century · Mark Lamster0 wins · 4 score
- Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century · James Howard Kunstler0 wins · 3 score
- 17
Russian cultural history
3 books
1
win
23
score
- 18
American society and culture
3 books
1
win
21
score
- 19
American popular culture
4 books
1
win
20
score
- What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing · Brian Seibert1 win · 9 score
- Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV · Emily Nussbaum0 wins · 4 score
- Pulphead: Essays · John Jeremiah Sullivan0 wins · 4 score
- The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life · Nancy Tomes0 wins · 3 score
- 20
Artist biography
3 books
1
win
18
score
- 21
Modern art history
4 books
0
wins
14
score
- 22
Southern culture
3 books
0
wins
12
score
- 23
Art criticism
3 books
0
wins
11
score
- 24
Hollywood history
3 books
0
wins
11
score
- 25
American art
3 books
0
wins
10
score
Recent Standout Topics (2020+)
- 1Hollywood history0 wins
Where This Data Comes From
- Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction2012–2026
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award1936–2026
- Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction1999–2026
- Bancroft Prize1948–2026
- Cundill History Prize2008–2026
- Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award2005–2026
- J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize1999–2026
- James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography1919–2025
- Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction2014–2026
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography1981–2025