The catholic mirage

The crisis in the anglican church has brought a windfall of converts and public esteem to the catholic church. But Madeleine Bunting argues that catholics are just as embattled and divided over how to combat secularism

Ruud Gullit

The glory days are back for British soccer. Thanks to the money poured into the game by television, Britain has come to rival Italy as a magnet for international stars. Brian Glanville portrays the Dutchman who is the glamorous emblem of the soccer renaissance

Virtue is a grace

Modern economics is founded on the assumption that human behaviour is driven by rational self-interest. How then can it explain real acts of generosity and selflessness? Matt Ridley considers a new economic model of the emotions which shows that altruistic behaviour is a superior form of enlightened, long term self-interest

De te fabula narratur

Are there any limits to the Americanisation of Britain? Alan Ryan, who has just returned from nine years in the US, hopes that Britain will resist the punitive and religious enthusiasms from across the Atlantic, but argues that there is no alternative to copying the US model in higher education

The dustbin of history?

Roundtable on Russia

John Lloyd

Russia is entering its most unstable period since the end of the Soviet Union. Will there be violence? Who is running the country? Why is the economy still depressed? Six Russia watchers review the country's mood and come to tentative judgements about Yeltsin and the role of the west

Constitutional paradox

Labour's constitutional reforms are designed to devolve power. But to succeed they must first centralise it

I spend, therefore I am

Government in the UK has not been re-invented. Pamela Meadows, former chief economist at the employment department, says that the public sector still operates largely for its own benefit, beyond Treasury control

Four biopics and a funeral

Screen biographies, from Schindler's List to Gandhi, have swept the board at the Oscars. But, Christopher Tookey argues, four recent releases testify to the wretched state of the genre

The last laugh

Berthold Goldschmidt is belatedly recognised as one of Britain's finest modern composers. In the last interview before his death he told Edward Pearce about neglect and rediscovery

Excavating the mind

The mind is best understood by examining what people actually did at different points in human evolution. Anthony Gottlieb finds that archaeologists are the most useful guides to consciousness

Brussels diary

Brussels diary

Letter from Germany

Dieter Zimmer reports on how trivial changes to German spelling rules are causing uproar among the literati

The joy of celibacy

Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Norris on how people who give up sex can exudea sense of freedom and teach something about friendship

A narrow escape in Zaire

Matthew Bigg

Matthew Bigg, Reuters correspondent, finds himself the victim of ethnic rage in eastern Zaire

The books

AC Grayling

Philosophy of history: AC Grayling surveys the essential literature from Thucydides to Popper

Strictly personal

Frederic Raphael

Babel

Will Hutton

Will Hutton on the visceral anti-Englishness that Andrew Neil shares with his former boss

In fact