Volume 40 Issue 2 February 1990

Paul Cartledge on democracy - from ancient Greece to modern Eastern Europe.

Andrew Fettegree looks at how the life and death of a radical religious maverick points up the tensions between individualism and order in Reformation Europe.

John Springhall on violence in the 19th-century media

Ann Hills on attempts to recreate authentic historic houses and grounds

'What's the matter with kids today?' Beth Bailey looks at the teen dreams of America's golden post-war years and finds ambivalence about their attitudes to affluence, competition and 'going steady'.

Michael Burleigh describes how the traditional debate over euthanasia was given a perverted twist by the Nazi use of it for a campaign of mass extermination, and the films and actors they used to enlist support for it.

Political cartoonists are the sharpshooters of the artistic world; theirs is a skilled but risky profession. Peter Mellini draws a line on the marksman James 'Gabriel' Friell, whose career at the Daily Worker and Evening Standard spanned the crucial years of Depression, World War, Cold War and post-war recovery.

Richard Welch charts the extraordinary explosion in American music and argues for its impact on society as a whole.

Ross Hassig questions whether the rationale behind the fighting in Mexico which Cortes encountered in 1519 has not been misunderstood.

Joseph Wright of Derby and the exhibition at the Tate.