How to display posts month by month?

How could wp-query be used to show posts month by month, and have it only show the past year? Or is it possible some wp_archive hack could handle this?

WordPress 3.7 introduced the date_query to display posts month by month:

$args = array(
    'date_query' => array(
        array(
            'month' => $month
        )
    )
);
$query = new WP_Query( $args );

Note : $month refers to month number (1-12)