Political

A 17-day political dogfight at the 1924 Democratic National Convention revealed the faultlines in American society, from prohibition to Protestantism to the shadow of the Ku Klux Klan.

Bill Wallace looks at the mixed inheritance of democratic ideas in Mother Russia and beyond as possible auguries for the future of the regimes that have succeeded the Soviet Union.

Ellen Meiksins Wood analyses democracy's historical progress and tots up the balance sheet for the present day.

Barry Strauss looks at the contrasts and similarities between the city-states and the 'land of the free'.

Valery Rees surveys the life of the ruler who put 15th-century Hungary on the map, both culturally and geographically, but whose efforts may have put an intolerable strain on the body politic.

Susan Cole looks at how, though formally excluded from the political process, Athena's sisters nevertheless made their mark.

François Hartog on how urban living has coincided with the advocacy of popular rule from Plato through to Machiavelli, Rousseau and 20th-century sociologists.

Ian MacDonald looks at how the Edwardian political battle on tariff reform and the career of Joseph Chamberlain was advanced via the postcard.

Without the economic muscle of the Netherlands' largest city, William III would never have been able to stage Britain's 'Glorious Revolution' or urge European war against Louis XIV. But his relationship with Amsterdam's burghers was far from smooth, as Elizabeth Edwards outlines here.

Brian Brivati looks at the last time 'modernising' the Labour Party and its union links caused controversy.