Letter from America: The Clinton Years (1997-2000)

Senator Robert Bennett prepares the US to face millennial computer failure and Alistair Cooke considers the origin and potentially disastrous consequences of the Y2K glitch.

Proposition 227, to teach immigrant's children purely in English, passes in California and Alistair Cooke considers the infamous English of Polish Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn.

President Clinton is subpoenaed to appear before Mr Starr's grand jury, the English origins of the US grand jury system and the flaws that led to it being abandoned in Britain.

Examining allegations that President Clinton persuaded Monica Lewinsky to give false testimony, Clinton's high approval rating and has Alan Greenspan noticed the heat wave?

The emergency caused by the 1998 Texas heatwave and should Clinton's Secret Service men be asked to testify in the Starr investigation into an alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky?

On the death of Roy Rogers (1911 -1998), the singing cowboy, Cooke considers the great film cowboys, Bruce Wayne, William S. Hart, Gary Cooper and the stuntman Yakima Canutt.

The rise and fall of tennis brats from the riot of McEnroe v Nastase, NYC 1979 to McEnroe's forfiet at the 1990 Australian Open and golf as the last refuge of chivalry in sport.

President Clinton visits China and Alistair Cooke considers US - China relations, their economic balance, disagreement over Taiwan and the changes since Nixon's visit in 1972.

US intervention in Japan's economy, Louise Woodward returns to the UK after her life sentence is reduced and Republican Trent Lott calls homosexuality a sin on national TV.

Considering religious freedom, anti-Catholic feeling, same-sex marriage, El Niño and renaming schools named after slave owners as Congress tidies around the edges of major issues.

Remembering Barry Goldwater, Alistair Cooke considers a most memorable defeated presidential candidate - the cowboy from Phoenix, Arizona who changed the Republican Party forever.

What happens if immigrants to America don't want to become Americans? Alistair Cooke considers assimilation, patriotism, Memorial Day and proposition 227.

Bill Gates' Microsoft faces a barrage of legal actions claiming that the Explorer web browser is a monopoly and Alistair Cooke considers the history of US anti-monopoly law.

India's 1998 nuclear tests take the US government by surprise and Alistair Cooke considers the vast changes in the daily burdens of the presidency since the 1920s.

The desire for a 'quick-fix', the false dawns of the daily medical miracle, the instant imitation of new inventions and excitement over a 'so-called' impotence pill.

The homogenisation of US life and media, California's lead in social legislation and two new Californian propositions on English for immigrants and labour union spending.

A history of US anti-smoking legislation, teenage smoking, the attempts of pro-tobacco lobbyists to cut a favourable deal and a draft bill which could cost them $516 billion.

The uncertain future of the investment bubble, US financial regulation, the lack of open reporting of financial figures in Asian countries and the effects of El Niño on weather.

The consequences Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the influence of the civil courts on pro-golf and a 9 year old girl's debunking of Therapeutic Touch.

Judge Wright throws out Paula Jones' civil prosecution of President Clinton for an alleged sexual assault in 1991. How will it affect the investigation of the Whitewater land deal?

The complexities and historical shifts of the interpretation of constitutional rights, freedom of speech and how to fly the American flag.

The controversies behind New York's St Patrick's Day Parade, US misconceptions about the status of Northern Ireland and American Irish historical memory of the famine of 1845/6.

Kosovo, Iraq, Haiti and Nicaragua: US rhetoric and responsibility for life and liberty abroad is compared to past problems of power and responsibility for the British Empire.

Bill Gates comes before the Senate Judiciary Committee accused of creating an internet browser monopoly and Alistair Cooke considers previous appearances from Rockefeller to Nixon.

Jerome Murray inventor of myriad conveniences, from the high speed dentist's drill to covered aeroplane boarding ramps, and the UN weapons inspection agreement with Saddam Hussein.