Reading Lists
Curated selections organized by theme — a way into the archive beyond browsing or search.
The Iraq War Debate, 1997–2007
The Weekly Standard was among the most forceful advocates for confronting Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and later for the troop surge that reversed the war's course. This collection traces the magazine's arguments from the late Clinton years through the Bush administration — the case for intervention, the reckoning with failure, and the fight for the Petraeus strategy.
11 articlesTrump and the GOP, 2015–2018
The Weekly Standard was one of the few conservative publications to oppose Donald Trump's candidacy from the beginning and to maintain that opposition through his presidency. This collection documents the magazine's argument — not from the left, but from within conservatism — that Trump represented a departure from the principles the right had long professed.
9 articlesMatt Labash: Selected Works
For more than two decades, Matt Labash's long-form reporting was among the most distinctive work the magazine published — combining literary ambition, comic timing, and an eye for the absurd in American life. This selection ranges from his earliest pieces in the mid-1990s through his final years at the magazine.
12 articlesWilliam Kristol: Editor's Columns, 1995–2018
As founding editor, William Kristol wrote the editorial columns that set the magazine's direction on the defining questions of its era — foreign policy after the Cold War, the rise and limits of the Bush presidency, and finally the transformation of the Republican Party under Donald Trump. This selection spans the full run.
9 articles