Prof JK Galbraith sets out his personal view of democracy, comparing politics in Switzerland, Britain and the US and emphasising Nehru's influence in India

JK Galbraith investigates the impact of Karl Marx on our economic interpretation of society, exploring how his life and work set the pattern for a socialist future

In Mexico and the Punjab, on the cotton fields of the old South and the farm where he was born, Prof Galbraith confronts the tragedy of the landless poor.

JK Galbraith examines WWI as an instrument for social change, looking especially at Lenin, who spent most of the war exiled in Switzerland urging soldiers to start a world revolution.

JK Galbraith explores the modern large corporation - 'the most relentless force for change in modern economic life'.

Professor Galbraith traces the colonial adventure, from the Crusades to the present. He looks at the potent myths that sustained colonialism and the real motives behind them.

JK Galbraith visits the ruins of postwar Berlin, the corridors of power in the Pentagon and 'the world's largest used plane lot' in his assessment of the contemporary roots of war.

JK Galbraith looks at the influence of John Maynard Keynes, who drew the blueprint for the postwar economic boom, and recalls his own involvement in those momentous years.

Prof Galbraith looks at the economic and social forces that turned the magnificent conception of the princely city step by step into the modern metropolis.

From the elegant banks of 17th-century Amsterdam to the dark days of the Great Depression, JK Galbraith traces the history of money - its uses and abuses, successes and disasters.