How was the smaller, poorer America of 1968—a country not always good but often great—able to accomplish so much that we deem impossible today?

A short guide to some of the best reads from the past year.

Orson Welles’s final film, newly completed after four decades in limbo, is a fascinating paradox: a deeply personal but radically collaborative project, which speaks as much to our time as to his.

Brexit in all its banal futility shows a return to the normal nastiness of Europe, after a 70-year hiatus of borrowed stability paid for by America.

A new documentary from an 88-year-old master casts an empathetic spotlight on small-town America, and the institutions that sustain its communal life.

Over the past seven decades, the human rights community has lost its way. A return to its roots is more necessary than ever.

Our prevailing approach to sanctions has manifestly failed to change the Kremlin’s behavior. There is a better way.

If the United States wants to get serious about tackling corruption, it needs to align itself with international norms and finally criminalize passive bribery.

As protests rage on over necessary reforms, it is the Yellow Jackets and their sympathizers—not President Macron—who are truly living in a bubble.

Don’t be fooled by cheery tweets about trade breakthroughs. The Huawei arrest shows that the Trump Administration’s wheels are turning toward full-blown competition with China.