History Today

When money for Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists began to dry up in the late 1930s, he turned to novel schemes for fund-raising. James and Patience Barnes recount the intriguing story.

Juan Cole looks at the pacifist, prophetic and millenarian 'world religion' whose leader emerged from the social and political unrest of 19th-century Iran and whose followers have since been persecuted by shah and ayatollah alike.

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.