Behind the Times

St Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture, but in the US its parades have always been political.

In the fight against rising river pollution by big corporations, legal cases have had to get creative.

Indonesian national heroes are state approved. Is Suharto, an old president with a history of violence, worthy of the title?

How to finance old age has been a problem since the inception of Britain’s welfare state. Why is pension reform so difficult?

It is 40 years since the death of Fernand Braudel, the historian who sought the perspective of ‘God the Father’.

The release of government documents related to the Kennedy assassination will keep scholars busy for years, but will we learn anything new?

A strong anti-graft sentiment runs throughout Ghana’s history, as its leaders have sometimes discovered the hard way.

How did Spain, Western Europe’s last dictatorship, become one of its most popular tourist destinations?

How did Swahili become an East African lingua franca? It was not by accident.

Canada and the US have often been uneasy neighbours; the roots of the latest political flare up can be found in their tangled history.