With a tough and tumultuous 2019 winding to a close, we huddled together to hammer out a list of what we thought were our best articles published in the past twelve months. You might expect the curators of a magazine to say as much, but it was especially difficult to pick favorites this year. It turns out that disturbing times get smart people thinking—and luckily for us, writing—so we were wading through a set of articles of remarkable quality.

Our picks reflect many of the broader themes that the magazine turned to this year: the threat of a rising China; the rise of nationalism, populism, and neo-socialism across the West; the persistent problem of race and identity in America and abroad; the roots of American power; and, most importantly, the question of how to reclaim and redefine a sensible political center in a time of profound intellectual crisis. We think we have captured a compelling snapshot.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are our favorite articles of 2019: