There are some controversial topics in these articles, but I have tried to find pieces that are thoughtful even in the face of controversy. For Year 12 (mature content); these are some great conversation starters.

Many from “The Best Magazine Articles Ever”

1 – 1939 – Albert Einstein – Albert Einstein Solves the Equation

2 – 1941 – Dorothy Thompson – Who Goes Nazi?

3 – 1946 – The New Yorker (entire issue) – Hiroshima

4 – 1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr. – Letter From Birmingham Jail

5 – 1982 – Edward J Epstein – Have Your Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

6 – 1989 – Frances Fukuyama – The End of History

7 – 1990 – William Nack – Pure Heart (Secretariat)

8 – 1991 – William Langewiesche – The World in its Extreme (Sahara)

9 – 1993 – Vernor Vinge – The Technological Singularity

10 – 1994 – Peter Drucker – The Age of Social Transformation

11 – 1995 – George McKenna – On Abortion, a Lincolnian Position

12 – 1996 – Neal Stephenson – Mother Earth, Mother Board, Wiring the Planet

13 – 1999 – Harvey Cox – The Market as God

14 – 2000 – Bill Joy – Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us

15 – 2001 – Andrew O’Hehir – The Book of the Century (Lord of the Rings)

16 – 2002 – Michael Pollan – An Animal’s Place

17 – 2004 – Daniel Foster Wallace – Consider the Lobster

18 – 2007 – Gene Weingarten – Pearls Before Breakfast

19 -2007 – CJ Chivers – The School

20 – 2007 – Jonathan Lethem – The Ecstasy of Influence

21 – 2008 – James McConkey – What Kind of Father Am I?

22 – 2008 – Chris Anderson – The Data Deluge

23 – 2009 – Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler – Stealing Mona Lisa

24 – 2009 – Joshua Shenk – What Makes Us Happy?

25 – 2010 – David Grann – The Mark of a Masterpiece

26 – 2010 – Atul Gawande – Letting Go

27 – 2010 – Errol Morris – The Anosognosic’s Dilemma

28 – 2004 – Chris Anderson – The Long Tail