Essential Articles

From the inaugural issue: a measured assessment of the Gingrich revolution and its limits.

Kristol's opening editorial asking whether Colin Powell might challenge Bob Dole — from the magazine's first issue.

Labash's breakthrough profile, establishing the literary long-form voice that would define the magazine.

An early example of the magazine's irreverent, street-level approach to cultural and feminist politics.

Brooks's early attempt to map a post-Cold War conservative politics that transcended old ideological lines.

An influential early critique of UN peacekeeping and the romantic fallacies of multilateralism.

Podhoretz on Sondheim and the long decline of the American musical — a signature arts essay.

O'Rourke at his most inventive: a satirical dispatch from the post-Soviet political underworld.

Ferguson's celebrated dissection of evolutionary psychology — among the most-cited pieces in the magazine's run.

Labash's defining early dispatch: total immersion in a subculture, reported with the magazine's signature mix of moral seriousness and dark comedy.

Kagan's early and influential argument for regime change in Iraq, written five years before the 2003 invasion.

A rigorous engagement with the promises and limits of reductionist social science.

Classic TWS long-form: obsessive reporting on a minor figure turned into something close to American portraiture.

The magazine's most celebrated long-form piece: a year inside the K Street ecosystem, told from the inside.

An early, influential argument for family as the proper unit of conservative social reform.

A late-run political analysis challenging the prevailing narrative about Hillary Clinton's electoral prospects.