Get married in Bermuda and you’ll always have the perfect excuse to come back. As life changes, Bermuda’s extraordinary qualities endure: moonlit beaches, secluded coves, nighttime symphonies of tiny tree frogs and, most alluring of all, a timeless mystique – what frequent visitor Mark Twain called a “subtle, indefinable charm of remoteness.” These same qualities set Bermuda apart as an exceptionally romantic honeymoon spot.

THE WEDDING VENUE OF YOUR Wildest Dreams
Bermuda’s oceanfront resorts, lush flowering gardens, historic churches, intriguing grottos and other photogenic settings make incredible backdrops, and the island’s mild weather makes outdoor events especially enjoyable. Explore all the options and find the venue that mirrors your vision for the big day.

DELIVERING ON Every Detail
There are hundreds of reasons to get married in Bermuda, and there are just as many wedding planners and suppliers on the island to help you do so. These talented, trusted professionals are ready to assist you through every step down to the last detail.

MEMORIES TO TREASURE for a Lifetime
Romance comes naturally in Bermuda, which makes it the perfect place for honeymoons and anniversaries. Go boating, snorkelling or diving to experience the 180 islands and islets that make up this archipelago. The island’s surrounding waters are full of coral reefs, colourful sea life and more than 300 shipwrecks. On land, explore everything from pink-sand beaches, blue grottos and lush gardens to historic towns, cultural gems and championship golf courses.

BERMUDA MAKES EVENTS Extraordinary
Now there is a renewed energy and excitement about the island as major renovations, new projects and legendary hospitality are paving the way for a next-generation destination to host meetings, conferences and incentive programmes. Set apart by its location out in the Atlantic, easy airlift access, the warmth of the people, its natural beauty, along with elegant and elevated style, make Bermuda an ideal destination for guaranteeing lasting memories.

FACILITIES & VENUES Tailor-Made for Your Meeting
Bermuda’s elegant meeting venues come in the form of oceanfront resorts, historic hotels and other unique spaces featuring ballrooms, breakout rooms, onsite dining, spas and more. Host a meeting or event on the island and you can tailor it to fit your group’s size, style and budget.

THE UTMOST ATTENTION TO DETAIL Comes Standard
No one knows Bermuda better than on-island destination management companies and event planners. Count on them to offer thorough, professional and creative assistance, from pre-planning through post-event follow-up. Their skills and contacts will help you to make smart, informed decisions, and their precise attention to detail ensures a seamless experience.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR A Seamless Experience
From rentals and audio-visual services to catering, entertainment and transportation, Bermuda’s meeting suppliers help you cover all the bases to ensure a smooth, successful event. You can expect a quality product and personal, knowledgeable service every step of the way.

Since its founding in 1609 by shipwreck survivors, Bermuda has always punched above its weight in the sporting world, from the PGA TOUR and America’s Cup to youth camps and tournaments. This 21-square-mile island’s subtropical climate and breathtaking beauty make for an irresistible year-round setting for sporting events, while the expertise and professionalism of the Bermuda Tourism Authority sporting events team ensure next-level planning and execution.

We invite you to be a part of Bermuda’s sporting legacy.

WHY BERMUDA?
A Sporting Legacy
Organisers of past sporting events we’ve welcomed will tell you: Bermuda is much more than a pretty place. Just a two-hour flight from major U.S. East Coast airports, the island is convenient and easy to get to. Visitors can choose from an enticing collection of group-friendly restaurants and places to stay, and sports venues and infrastructure are state-of-the-art. The Bermuda Tourism Authority’s sports event planning team can arrange the venues and accommodations best suited for your event – and much more.

High-Profile Events
The flawless execution of the 2017 America’s Cup race is more than a feather in our cap – it’s a shining example of what can happen when you partner with BTA for an event. So, too, are the Howard University Training Camp that brought over 100 swimmers to the National Sports Centre, the USTA Visitor Tournaments that took place at the Coral Beach & Tennis Club and 2018’s Amlin World Triathlon.

A Safe, Welcoming Place
With its diverse blend of cultural influences and a population of just 65,000, Bermuda has the feel of a laid-back small town – albeit one with international sensibilities. It’s an island known the world over for its warmth and hospitality; the kind of place where everyone you pass says “good morning.” It’s also an incredibly safe place for groups of all ages. The crime rate is incredibly low, as are risks arising from natural hazards.

Looking for adventure? Look no further than Canada’s beautifully diverse national parks. No matter the season, there’s a park that will offer not only stunning scenery, but also unique experiences — from luxurious camping to snowshoeing.

Spring is the perfect time to get outside and explore. And there’s no better place to do it than at one of Canada’s National Parks. From trails worth exploring to fresh flowers budding, here are five parks to visit as the weather warms up.

Alberta: Elk Island National Park
Elk Island Park was created in 1906, becoming Canada’s first wildlife sanctuary. In 1913, Canada’s Dominion Parks Service established Elk Island as Canada’s 6th and only entirely-fenced national park.

Just 40 minutes from Edmonton, Elk Island National Park is the perfect escape from the city hustle. The big draw here? Bison and elk of course! There’s also a festival and geocaching if you’re looking for something lively, as well as Parks Canada classics like hiking, camping, kayaking, sailing, and more.

Ontario: Point Pelee National Park
Located about 50 kilometres south-east of Windsor, Ontario, Point Pelee National Park of Canada is one of the country’s smallest national parks, and yet this tiny green oasis attracts approximately 300,000 visitors each year.

More south than Northern California, Point Pelee is just as stunning (in our humble opinion). A lush, forested oasis, this park is perfect for a getaway. Head into the greenery during the Festival of Birds, where visitors can witness the migration of several species of birds. Or, set out on a wildflower walk, where you can explore the colors of the wildflowers that bloom every spring. Looking for something low-key? Have a picnic, paddle the wetlands, or explore the trails.

Saskatchewan: Prince Albert National Park
To see one of Canada’s few remaining populations of free ranging plains bison within their historic range, follow the road signs to the west side of Prince Albert National Park.

Just under three hours outside of Saskatoon, you’ll be transported to stunning wilderness in Prince Albert National Park. Tucked in a boreal forest, become one with nature as you’re surrounded by towering trees, free-ranging plains bison, and all sorts of other wildlife. In the park, you can lounge on the beach (when the weather heats up), canoe, cycle, and even explore the town of Waskesiu within the park itself.

Newfoundland and Labrador: Torngat Mountains National Park
From the Inuktitut word Torngait, meaning “place of spirits,” the Torngat Mountains have been home to Inuit and their predecessors for thousands of years.

Rugged wilderness and breathtaking vistas are what you’ll find in this Newfoundland and Labrador park. Because this park is fairly remote, the sprawling fields and jagged mountains seem untouched. In the spring, popular activities are camping and hiking, and there are plenty of spots to do both. Other top contenders are photography and wildlife watching, which you’ll find no shortage of through the expanse of this almost 10,360-square-kilometre park. Just remember to register when entering the park so the rangers can keep track of those exploring.

Northwest Territories: Aulavik National Park
Aulavik is considered a polar desert. The total annual precipitation for the park is approximately 300 mm, one third of which falls as rain during the summer.

Located on Banks Island in the Northwest Territories, this rugged and fairly remote park is home to a variety of landscapes that are sure to please any adventurer or photographer. Picture fertile valleys, polar desert, rocky coastline, and badlands. You can hike, camp, and even canoe or kayak (though you’ll need to access the park by air to go, or book with an outfitter). Keep your eyes peeled for all sorts of unique Northern nature and wildlife too, like the Arctic fox, as well as archeological artifacts.

Canada is a big place, but it’s far from empty. In fact, it’s filled to the brim with incredible natural wonders that will leave any lover of the outdoors awe-struck, and you don’t have to fly to the far corners of the country to enjoy them. There are amazing wonders within close proximity to Canada’s biggest cities.

Here’s a look at a handful of Canadian natural wonders you can experience within two hours of a major urban centre.

Waterfalls
Less than a two-hour drive from Toronto sits Canada’s most renowned natural wonder: Niagara Falls. You might think that if you’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all, but the sound of the water as you approach it, the mist you feel on your face as you look up 50m at a torrent of blue and white, and the sheer power of the falls that you can feel to your bones… those things never really get old. Plus, the district of Niagara Falls is a city in its own right, full of attractions, entertainment, and terrific dining. If you’re looking to experience a Canadian natural wonder, this is the one.

Many people are surprised to discover that a waterfall one and a half times higher than Niagara Falls sits just minutes from Quebec City. At 83m, the Montmorency Falls are a sight to behold, both from within the city, and up close and personal in the Montmorency Falls Park (Parc de la Chute-Montmorency in French). Hang out near the base or ride the gondola up to the top for a spectacular view. More adventurous visitors might choose to hike one of the three Via Ferrata trails, stopping at viewpoints along the way for some Instagram-worthy shots, or even zip line across the falls.

Then there’s Shannon Falls, a beautiful waterfall less than an hour’s drive from Vancouver. Located in the provincial park of the same name, the falls originate 300m above sea level and steadily tumble down between granite cliffs. Located just off the picturesque Sea to Sky Highway, this waterfall is incredibly accessible and well worth the quick drive from the city.

Northern Lights
Canada offers some of the best northern lights viewing in the entire world, and you often don’t have to leave the city to enjoy it.

The Northwest Territories provides some of, if not THE best aurora borealis viewing in the world. To see the bright reds, blues, greens, and yellows dance across the night sky, all you have to do is take a look through your hotel window in capital city Yellowknife—known as the “Aurora Capital of North America.” Within the city, you could also experience the Northern Lights by dog sled or while staying in a comfortable tipi.

The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is also a fantastic place to see this natural wonder in action. This city often finds itself underneath coloured skies. Only 20 minutes outside of the city, you can leave the lights behind and enjoy the aurora surrounded by nature before sleeping in a prospector-style tent.

If you can’t make it up to Canada’s territories, the Northern Lights have also been known to make a rare appearance in Edmonton, at the Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Preserve a couple of hours north of Toronto, and even in Prince Edward Island National Park half an hour north of the capital city Charlottetown.

Beaches
Often called the best beach in Canada, Singing Sands in Basin Head Provincial Park, just 75 minutes from Charlottetown, is a nine-mile white sand beach with some of the warmest waters in the province. In fact, the beach is said to have some of the warmest waters north of Florida, occasionally exceeding 21 degrees. The beach’s strange name is a result of its fine sand, which squeaks as your feet press into it—the result of a high concentration of silica and quartz. There are 23 beaches on Prince Edward Island, and all of them are within a couple of hours of one another, so you can enjoy a handful of these natural wonders in a day.

Forget near the city—how about directly within it! Vancouver has nine beautiful beaches within its boundaries, so you never have to stray far from your hotel to enjoy soft sand beneath your feet. In fact, National Geographic named Vancouver one of the 10 best beach cities in the world. The standout of the bunch is probably Wreck Beach, an 8-kilometre, clothing-optional beach near the campus of the University of British Columbia. If you prefer to keep your kit on, then English Bay with its volleyball courts, diving platform, and peerless people watching in the heart of the city’s West End neighbourhood comes a close second.

You only need to travel 10 minutes from the city of Toronto to enter a completely different, beachy world. Hop on a ferry and journey to Toronto Island, and their three beautiful beaches. Lay down your towel and enjoy the best of nature with beautiful views of the city.

Finally, about an hour north-east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, sits Grand Beach, often named one of the best beaches in Canada. There, on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, you’ll find dunes reaching nearly 12m in height, and ample opportunities for sunbathing and swimming.

Other natural wonders
Every single year, thousands upon thousands of skiers and snowboarders take to the mountains of Whistler to enjoy some of the best snow conditions anywhere. In the summer, these mountains become a world-class mountain biking and hiking destination. Throw in the area’s incredible hot springs, lakes, and rivers, and it isn’t hard to figure why people flock to this village 90 minutes north of Vancouver to immerse themselves in nature.

While on the topic of mountains, the Rocky Mountains are undoubtedly a natural wonder, and they can be enjoyed after just a short, 90-minute drive from Calgary. That quick jaunt will bring you into the unmatched Banff National Park, home to glaciers, forests, rivers, valleys, and of course, mountains, all of which will dazzle you with their scale and beauty. It’s in this park that you’ll find the picturesque Lake Louise, with its jaw-dropping turquoise blue waters set perfectly in front of the Victoria Glacier. Then there’s the beautiful Moraine Lake, equally photo-worthy and a great place for a hike or paddle.

About two hours from Calgary in the other direction is Dinosaur Provincial Park, one of the biggest dinosaur graveyards in the world. Fossils of nearly 500 species of animals and a remarkable 40 dinosaurs have been found amidst the park’s spires, pinnacles, and other formations.

Across the country, both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick host an internationally-known natural wonder: the Bay of Fundy. Home to the highest tides in the world, over 100 billion tonnes of seawater enter and leave the Bay twice every single day. The resulting 12m change in water level has shaped the unique landscape of the coastline and entire region, but is displayed most impressively at the unique Hopewell Rocks—only 30 minutes from Moncton, the second biggest city in New Brunswick.

Last but not least is Canada’s own tiny little Dead Sea, Little Manitou Lake. Located just over an hour’s drive from Saskatoon, this unique lake is filled with briny water that apparently possesses natural skin and body care properties. These properties take their origins in the concentrations of mineral salts, magnesium, silica, potassium, and other minerals found in the water. Go for a float to relax and rejuvenate your body.

Ready to recharge? Consider a holiday in Canada, a vast and varied country, filled with places of immense beauty, quiet, and all the room you need to unplug and rejuvenate your mind, body, and soul.

Try sitting on the deck of a century-old home in coastal Newfoundland, a glass of Screech rum in hand, perhaps watching an iceberg floating slowly just off shore. Or try a hot tub with a view of the snow-capped Canadian Rockies, a jade-green lake shimmering in the distance. Sound good? We’re just getting started. Here are more of Canada’s most incredible places to relax and unwind.

Cabana Desolation Eco Resort, British Columbia
On a quiet, uninhabited island in the heart of Desolation Sound off British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, Cabana Desolation Eco Resort is surrounded by warm ocean teeming with marine life and imposing Coast mountains. This off-grid resort uses the latest in conservation techniques to preserve the unspoiled beauty of Kinghorn Island, including environmentally sensitive systems for water, renewable energy, solar powered lighting, sustainably harvested and recycled building materials, and locally grown and harvested foods.

A house in Bonavista and Cape Race Adventures, Newfoundland and Labrador
A place of soul-stirring beauty and foot-tapping Celtic music, Newfoundland and Labrador is special. Even if you’re looking for some time to yourself, you’ll soon discover how much you enjoy the big-hearted locals. And that’s where Cape Race Adventures comes in, connecting you with folks who can invite you to an authentic “kitchen party” or show you the best place to watch puffins perched atop stunning cliffs. Take up residence in a 100-year-old salt-box house on the windswept Bonavista Peninsula and wait for a friendly knock on the door.

Lake O’Hara Lodge, British Columbia and Alberta
Beloved Lake O’Hara Lodge isn’t the fanciest backcountry accommodation on the British Columbia side of the Canadian Rockies. But it is super-friendly, laidback, relatively accessible, and the setting is just spectacular. Not too far from Lake Louise, Lake O’Hara is so popular that regulars from around the world return year after year to hike or ski the trails, savour the outdoor grandeur, and play in or on the lake, depending on the season. Guides come with the deal, and visitors plan their adventures over a hearty breakfast.

Fairmont Le Château Montebello, Quebec
It may be the “world’s largest log cabin,” but Fairmont Le Château Montebello really is about finding sanctuary in an elegant, exclusive setting. Located in Montebello, Quebec, it’s a rustic-luxe resort on the Ottawa River, formerly a private 1930s club that has played host to numerous VIPs and world power brokers. Just rest and spa, or do as much or as little as you like. There’s certainly no need to leave the 65,000-acre property, which also happens to be a wildlife refuge. Onsite you’ll find a golf course, four dining options, three lounges, a health club with indoor and outdoor pools, and so many activities to keep you relaxed.

Lazy Bear Lodge, Manitoba
Head to Lazy Bear Lodge (of Lazy Bear Lodge Expeditions), located right in the town of Churchill. This may look like your classic log cabin, but there is nothing standard here. Built over 10 years by local resident Wally Daudrich, the hotel boasts windows recycled from an 1800s Hudson Bay Trading Post and the floor is recycled Douglas fir from a 1920 Canadian National Railway warehouse. Named as one of National Geographic Traveler’s top hotels, the lodge is your home base for polar bear tours and beluga whale viewing.

White Point Beach Resort, Nova Scotia
Sometimes it’s hard to have fun if your holiday is breaking the bank. Relax, and head to White Point Beach Resort on Nova Scotia’s south shore, a budget-friendly oceanfront resort near Halifax. The place looks like a postcard for summertime: a red-roofed 1920s pavilion with old-style charm on a white crescent beach right on the Atlantic. Stay in rustic cottages or the main lodge and join the nightly beach bonfire, or the occasional mussel bake. Stroll the long, sandy beach looking for the cute resident bunnies and take a surfing lesson. Or just sit and listen to the waves lap the shore — Nova Scotia-style therapy.

Langdon Hall, Ontario
Add a bit of the romantic to your relaxing getaway at Langdon Hall Country House Hotel and Spa, a prestigious Relais & Château property, also voted top in Canada by Condé Nast Traveler readers. With manicured grounds, elegant sitting rooms, walking trails, croquet, tennis, and a restaurant garden, the Georgian manor in Cambridge, Ontario is ready to cater to your any indulgence. Massage, food, fireside R&R — it’s all here. The six-course tasting menu features expert wine pairings and unexpected, but delicious desserts. Free wine tastings and cooking demos are on offer, too, if you decide to leave the cushy armchair by the crackling fire.

Are you long overdue for a relaxing holiday? Make it a Canadian holiday.

The territory represented by the continental United States had, of course, been discovered, perhaps several times, before the voyages of Christopher Columbus. When Columbus arrived, he found the New World inhabited by peoples who in all likelihood had originally come from the continent of Asia. Probably these first inhabitants had arrived 20,000 to 35,000 years before in a series of migrations from Asia to North America by way of the Bering Strait. By the time the first Europeans appeared, the indigenous people (commonly referred to as Indians) had spread and occupied all portions of the New World.

The foods and other resources available in each physiographic region largely determined the type of culture prevailing there. Fish and sea mammals, for example, contributed the bulk of the food supply of coastal peoples, although the acorn was a staple for California Indians; plant life and wild game (especially the American bison, or buffalo) were sources for the Plains Indians; and small-game hunting and fishing (depending again on local resources) provided for Midwestern and Eastern American Indian groups. These foods were supplemented by corn (maize), which was a staple food for the Indians of the Southwest. The procurement of these foods called for the employment of fishing, hunting, plant and berry gathering, and farming techniques, the application of which depended, in turn, upon the food resources utilized in given areas.

Foods and other raw materials likewise conditioned the material culture of the respective regional groups. All Indians transported goods by human carrier; the use of dogs to pull sleds or travois was widespread; and rafts, boats, and canoes were used where water facilities were available. The horse, imported by the Spanish in the early 16th century, was quickly adopted by the Indians once it had made its appearance. Notably, it came to be used widely by the buffalo-hunting Indians of the Great Plains.

American Indian culture groups were distinguished, among other ways, by house types. Dome-shaped ice houses (igloos) were developed by the Eskimos (called Inuit in Canada) in what would become Alaska; rectangular plank houses were produced by the Northwest Coast Indians; earth and skin lodges and tepees, by plains and prairie tribes; flat-roofed and often multistoried houses, by some of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest; and barrel houses, by the Northeast Indians. Clothing, or the lack of it, likewise varied with native groups, as did crafts, weapons, and tribal economic, social, and religious customs.

At the time of Columbus’s arrival there were probably roughly 1.5 million American Indians in what is now the continental United States, although estimates vary greatly. In order to assess the role and the impact of the American Indian upon the subsequent history of the United States in any meaningful way, one must understand the differentiating factors between Native American peoples, such as those mentioned above. Generally speaking, it may be said, however, that the American Indians as a whole exercised an important influence upon the civilization transplanted from Europe to the New World. Indian foods and herbs, articles of manufacture, methods of raising some crops, war techniques, words, a rich folklore, and ethnic infusions are among the more obvious general contributions of the Indians to their European conquerors. The protracted and brutal westward-moving conflict caused by “white” expansionism and Indian resistance constitutes one of the most tragic chapters in the history of the United States.

 

Colonial America to 1763
The European background
The English colonization of North America was but one chapter in the larger story of European expansion throughout the globe. The Portuguese, beginning with a voyage to Porto Santo off the coast of West Africa in 1418, were the first Europeans to promote overseas exploration and colonization. By 1487 the Portuguese had traveled all the way to the southern tip of Africa, establishing trading stations at Arguin, Sierra Leone, and El Mina. In 1497 Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed up the eastern coast of Africa, laying the groundwork for Portugal’s later commercial control of India. By 1500, when Pedro Álvares Cabral stumbled across the coast of Brazil en route to India, Portuguese influence had expanded to the New World as well.

Though initially lagging behind the Portuguese in the arts of navigation and exploration, the Spanish quickly closed that gap in the decades following Columbus’s voyages to America. First in the Caribbean and then in spectacular conquests of New Spain and Peru, they captured the imagination, and the envy, of the European world.

France, occupied with wars in Europe to preserve its own territorial integrity, was not able to devote as much time or effort to overseas expansion as did Spain and Portugal. Beginning in the early 16th century, however, French fishermen established an outpost in Newfoundland, and in 1534 Jacques Cartier began exploring the Gulf of St. Lawrence. By 1543 the French had ceased their efforts to colonize the northeast portion of the New World. In the last half of the 16th century, France attempted to found colonies in Florida and Brazil, but each of these efforts failed, and by the end of the century Spain and Portugal remained the only two European nations to have established successful colonies in America.

The English, although eager to duplicate the Spanish and Portuguese successes, nevertheless lagged far behind in their colonization efforts. The English possessed a theoretical claim to the North American mainland by dint of the 1497 voyage of John Cabot off the coast of Nova Scotia, but in fact they had neither the means nor the desire to back up that claim during the 16th century. Thus it was that England relied instead on private trading companies, which were interested principally in commercial rather than territorial expansion, to defend its interests in the expanding European world. The first of these commercial ventures began with the formation of the Muscovy Company in 1554. In 1576–78 the English mariner Martin Frobisher undertook three voyages in search of a Northwest Passage to the Far East. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake made his famous voyage around the world, plundering the western coast of South America en route. A year later Sir Humphrey Gilbert, one of the most dedicated of Elizabethan imperialists, began a series of ventures aimed at establishing permanent colonies in North America. All his efforts met with what was, at best, limited success. Finally, in September 1583, Gilbert, with five vessels and 260 men, disappeared in the North Atlantic. With the failure of Gilbert’s voyage, the English turned to a new man, Sir Walter Raleigh, and a new strategy—a southern rather than a northern route to North America—to advance England’s fortunes in the New World. Although Raleigh’s efforts to found a permanent colony off the coast of Virginia did finally fail with the mysterious destruction of the Roanoke Island colony in 1587, they awakened popular interest in a permanent colonizing venture.

During the years separating the failure of the Roanoke attempt and the establishment in 1607 of Jamestown colony, English propagandists worked hard to convince the public that a settlement in America would yield instant and easily exploitable wealth. Even men such as the English geographer Richard Hakluyt were not certain that the Spanish colonization experience could or should be imitated but hoped nevertheless that the English colonies in the New World would prove to be a source of immediate commercial gain. There were, of course, other motives for colonization. Some hoped to discover the much-sought-after route to the Orient (East Asia) in North America. English imperialists thought it necessary to settle in the New World in order to limit Spanish expansion. Once it was proved that America was a suitable place for settlement, some Englishmen would travel to those particular colonies that promised to free them from religious persecution. There were also Englishmen, primarily of lower- and middle-class origin, who hoped the New World would provide them with increased economic opportunity in the form of free or inexpensive land. These last two motives, while they have been given considerable attention by historians, appear not to have been so much original motives for English colonization as they were shifts of attitude once colonization had begun.

A country for less than two and a half centuries, the United States is a relatively new member of the global community, but its rapid growth since the 18th century is unparalleled. The early promise of the New World as a refuge and land of opportunity was realized dramatically in the 20th century with the emergence of the United States as a world power. With a total population exceeded only by those of China and India, the United States is also characterized by an extraordinary diversity in ethnic and racial ancestry. A steady stream of immigration, notably from the 1830s onward, formed a pool of foreign-born persons unmatched by any other nation; 60 million people immigrated to U.S. shores in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many were driven, seeking escape from political or economic hardship, while others were drawn, by a demand for workers, abundant natural resources, and expansive cheap land. Most arrived hoping to remake themselves in the New World.

Americans also have migrated internally with great vigour, exhibiting a restlessness that thrived in the open lands and on the frontier. Initially, migratory patterns ran east to west and from rural areas to cities, then, in the 20th century, from the South to the Northeast and Midwest. Since the 1950s, though, movement has been primarily from the cities to outlying suburbs and from aging northern metropolises to the growing urban agglomerations of the South, Southwest, and West.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the majority of the U.S. population had achieved a high level of material comfort, prosperity, and security. Nonetheless, Americans struggled with the unexpected problems of relative affluence, as well as the persistence of residual poverty. Crime, drug abuse, affordable energy sources, urban sprawl, voter apathy, pollution, high divorce rates, AIDS, and excessive litigation remained continuing subjects of concern, as were inequities and inadequacies in education and managed health care. Among the public policy issues widely debated were abortion, gun control, welfare reforms, and capital punishment.

Many Americans perceive social tension as the product of their society’s failure to extend the traditional dream of equality of opportunity to all people. Ideally, social, political, economic, and religious freedom would assure the like treatment of everyone, so that all could achieve goals in accord with their individual talents, if only they worked hard enough. This strongly held belief has united Americans throughout the centuries. The fact that some groups have not achieved full equality troubles citizens and policy-makers alike.

The great art historian Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich once wrote that there is really no such thing as “art”; there are only artists. This is a useful reminder to anyone studying, much less setting out to try to define, anything as big and varied as the culture of the United States. For the culture that endures in any country is made not by vast impersonal forces or by unfolding historical necessities but by uniquely talented men and women, one-of-a-kind people doing one thing at a time—doing what they can, or must. In the United States, particularly, where there is no more a truly “established” art than an established religion—no real academies, no real official art—culture is where one finds it, and many of the most gifted artists have chosen to make their art far from the parades and rallies of worldly life.

Some of the keenest students of the American arts have even come to dislike the word culture as a catchall for the plastic and literary arts, since it is a term borrowed from anthropology, with its implication that there is any kind of seamless unity to the things that writers and poets and painters have made. The art of some of the greatest American artists and writers, after all, has been made in deliberate seclusion and has taken as its material the interior life of the mind and heart that shapes and precedes shared “national” experience. It is American art before it is the culture of the United States. Even if it is true that these habits of retreat are, in turn, themselves in part traditions, and culturally shaped, it is also true that the least illuminating way to approach the poems of Emily Dickinson or the paintings of Winslow Homer, to take only two imposing instances, is as the consequence of large-scale mass sociological phenomenon.

Still, many, perhaps even most, American culture makers have not only found themselves, as all Americans do, caught in the common life of their country—they have chosen to make the common catch their common subject. Their involvement with the problems they share with their neighbours, near and far, has given their art a common shape and often a common substance. And if one quarrel has absorbed American artists and thinkers more than any other, it has been that one between the values of a mass, democratic, popular culture and those of a refined elite culture accessible only to the few—the quarrel between “low” and “high.” From the very beginnings of American art, the “top down” model of all European civilization, with a fine art made for an elite class of patrons by a specialized class of artists, was in doubt, in part because many Americans did not want that kind of art, in part because, even if they wanted it, the social institutions—a court or a cathedral—just were not there to produce and welcome it. What came in its place was a commercial culture, a marketplace of the arts, which sometimes degraded art into mere commerce and at other times raised the common voice of the people to the level of high art.

In the 20th century, this was, in some part, a problem that science left on the doorstep of the arts. Beginning at the turn of the century, the growth of the technology of mass communications—the movies, the phonograph, radio, and eventually television—created a potential audience for stories and music and theatre larger than anyone could previously have dreamed that made it possible for music and drama and pictures to reach more people than had ever been possible. People in San Francisco could look at the latest pictures or hear the latest music from New York City months, or even moments, after they were made; a great performance demanded a pilgrimage no longer than the path to a corner movie theatre. High culture had come to the American living room.

But, though interest in a “democratic” culture that could compete with traditional high culture has grown in recent times, it is hardly a new preoccupation. One has only to read such 19th-century classics as Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1869) to be reminded of just how long, and just how keenly, Americans have asked themselves if all the stained glass and sacred music of European culture is all it is cracked up to be, and if the tall tales and Cigar-Store Indians did not have more juice and life in them for a new people in a new land. Twain’s whole example, after all, was to show that American speech as it was actually spoken was closer to Homer than imported finery was.

In this way, the new machines of mass reproduction and diffusion that fill modern times, from the daguerreotype to the World Wide Web, came not simply as a new or threatening force but also as the fulfillment of a standing American dream. Mass culture seemed to promise a democratic culture: a cultural life directed not to an aristocracy but to all men and women. It was not that the new machines produced new ideals but that the new machines made the old dreams seem suddenly a practical possibility.

The practical appearance of this dream began in a spirit of hope. Much American art at the turn of the 20th century and through the 1920s, from the paintings of Charles Sheeler to the poetry of Hart Crane, hymned the power of the new technology and the dream of a common culture. By the middle of the century, however, many people recoiled in dismay at what had happened to the American arts, high and low, and thought that these old dreams of a common, unifying culture had been irrevocably crushed. The new technology of mass communications, for the most part, seemed to have achieved not a generous democratization but a bland homogenization of culture. Many people thought that the control of culture had passed into the hands of advertisers, people who used the means of a common culture just to make a buck. It was not only that most of the new music and drama that had been made for movies and radio, and later for television, seemed shallow; it was also that the high or serious culture that had become available through the means of mass reproduction seemed to have been reduced to a string of popularized hits, which concealed the real complexity of art. Culture, made democratic, had become too easy.

As a consequence, many intellectuals and artists around the end of World War II began to try to construct new kinds of elite “high” culture, art that would be deliberately difficult—and to many people it seemed that this new work was merely difficult. Much of the new art and dance seemed puzzling and deliberately obscure. Difficult art happened, above all, in New York City. During World War II, New York had seen an influx of avant-garde artists escaping Adolf Hitler’s Europe, including the painters Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, and Joan Miró, as well as the composer Igor Stravinsky. They imported many of the ideals of the European avant-garde, particularly the belief that art should always be difficult and “ahead of its time.” (It is a paradox that the avant-garde movement in Europe had begun, in the late 19th century, in rebellion against what its advocates thought were the oppressive and stifling standards of high, official culture in Europe and that it had often looked to American mass culture for inspiration.) In the United States, however, the practice of avant-garde art became a way for artists and intellectuals to isolate themselves from what they thought was the cheapening of standards.

And yet this counterculture had, by the 1960s, become in large American cities an official culture of its own. For many intellectuals around 1960, this gloomy situation seemed to be all too permanent. One could choose between an undemanding low culture and an austere but isolated high culture. For much of the century, scholars of culture saw these two worlds—the public world of popular culture and the private world of modern art—as irreconcilable antagonists and thought that American culture was defined by the abyss between them.

As the century and its obsessions closed, however, more and more scholars came to see in the most enduring inventions of American culture patterns of cyclical renewal between high and low. And as scholars have studied particular cases instead of abstract ideas, it has become apparent that the contrast between high and low has often been overdrawn. Instead of a simple opposition between popular culture and elite culture, it is possible to recognize in the prolix and varied forms of popular culture innovations and inspirations that have enlivened the most original high American culture—and to then see how the inventions of high culture circulate back into the street, in a spiraling, creative flow. In the astonishing achievements of the American jazz musicians, who took the popular songs of Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway musical and inflected them with their own improvisational genius; in the works of great choreographers like Paul Taylor and George Balanchine, who found in tap dances and marches and ballroom bebop new kinds of movement that they then incorporated into the language of high dance; in the “dream boxes” of the American avant-garde artist Joseph Cornell, who took for his material the mundane goods of Woolworth’s and the department store and used them as private symbols in surreal dioramas: in the work of all of these artists, and so many more, we see the same kind of inspiring dialogue between the austere discipline of avant-garde art and the enlivening touch of the vernacular.

This argument has been so widely resolved, in fact, that, in the decades bracketing the turn of the 21st century, the old central and shaping American debate between high and low has been in part replaced by a new and, for the moment, still more clamorous argument. It might be said that if the old debate was between high and low, this one is between the “centre” and the “margins.” The argument between high and low was what gave the modern era its special savour. A new generation of critics and artists, defining themselves as “postmodern,” have argued passionately that the real central issue of culture is the “construction” of cultural values, whether high or low, and that these values reflect less enduring truth and beauty, or even authentic popular taste, than the prejudices of professors. Since culture has mostly been made by white males praising dead white males to other white males in classrooms, they argue, the resulting view of American culture has been made unduly pale, masculine, and lifeless. It is not only the art of African Americans and other minorities that has been unfairly excluded from the canon of what is read, seen, and taught, these scholars argue, often with more passion than evidence; it is also the work of anonymous artists, particularly women, that has been “marginalized” or treated as trivial. This argument can conclude with a rational, undeniable demand that more attention be paid to obscure and neglected writers and artists, or it can take the strong and often irrational form that all aesthetic values are merely prejudices enforced by power. If the old debate between high and low asked if real values could rise from humble beginnings, the new debate about American culture asks if true value, as opposed to mere power, exists at all.