Find a copy in the library
Finding libraries that hold this item...
Details
Genre/Form: | Biographies Biography NonFiction Historical Political Biografi |
---|---|
Named Person: | Woodrow Wilson; Woodrow Wilson; Woodrow Wilson; Woodrow Wilson |
Material Type: | Biography |
Document Type: | Book |
All Authors / Contributors: |
A Scott Berg |
ISBN: | 9780399159213 0399159215 |
OCLC Number: | 830668905 |
Description: | 818 pages, 48 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm |
Contents: | Ascension -- Providence -- Eden -- Sinai -- Reformation -- Advent -- Paul -- Disciples -- Baptism -- Ecclesiastes -- Deliverance -- Armageddon -- Isaiah -- Gethsemane -- Passion -- Pietà -- Resurrection. |
Responsibility: | A. Scott Berg. |
Abstract:
One hundred years after his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson still stands as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, and one of the most enigmatic. And now, after more than a decade of research and writing, the author has completed a personal and penetrating biography about the 28th President. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of documents in the Wilson Archives, the author was the first biographer to gain access to two recently discovered caches of papers belonging to those close to Wilson. From this material, he was able to add countless details, even several unknown events, that fill in missing pieces of Wilson's character and cast new light on his entire life. From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence, from the idealist determined to make the world safe for democracy to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century's greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view. A book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson's life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon but Wilson the man. -- From publisher's web site.
Reviews
WorldCat User Reviews (1)
A Magnificent Biography Of A Complex Figure
“Wilson” is a magnificent biography of a prominent, but controversial figure in American history. Mostly...
Read more...
“Wilson” is a magnificent biography of a prominent, but controversial figure in American history. Mostly known for being the scholarly President who led his country through World War I but then failed to persuade it to enter the League of Nations, this tome reveals a much broader career more and complex man than the public would imagine.
Born the son of a Presbyterian minister in Staunton, Virginia in 1856, Wilson began life with both a northern heritage and southern experience. While growing up in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia he saw firsthand the devastation of War and its aftermath. Although regarding himself as a Southerner for life, he pursued his education at Princeton in New Jersey, Davidson in North Carolina and at the University of Virginia Law School. Not finding the law to his liking, he segued into the academic world at Cornell, Bryn Mawr and, most significantly, his alma mater, Princeton. Focusing on political science and jurisprudence Wilson acquired a reputation that resulted in the offer of the presidency of two major universities before accepting that of Princeton. In that position his vision expanded the scope of the university before a contest with a major donor drove him to run for governor of New Jersey, as he said, “to get out of politics.” His substantial Progressive record during his two years as governor drew the national spotlight and made him a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1912. Facing a Republican party divided between President Taft and former President Roosevelt, Wilson won an easy victory. Hoping to devote his energies to domestic initiatives, it was his misfortune to preside over an administration confronting great foreign challenges, primarily in Mexico and Europe. His transition from working for peace to preparation for and prosecution of war, while not as statesman like as Franklin Roosevelt’s would later be, was more self-directed than I had realized. His intensive involvement in the peace conference shows less of the impractical professor and more of the principled politician. His battle over the Treaty in the Senate and across the country left him a shrunken figure with the heart, but not the body, to carry on his struggle.
Author A. Scott Berg has succeeded in introducing readers to the contrasts of a man of both ideas and action. Berg’s presentation of Wilson is generally favorable without ignoring his shortcomings. Despite their northern and Scottish backgrounds, the Wilsons were family that grafted itself into Southern traditions. A political scientist who admired the British governmental system, he was a rare example of his profession who had the opportunity to put his beliefs into action, both on the domestic and international scenes. Berg skillfully advances a more nuanced view of Wilson than I had previously appreciated. By following a sequence of health problems, Wilson’s stroke is a major event along a continuum rather than a surprising bolt out of the blue. Relationships with his two wives depict a much more romantical spirit than I had seen in other books. Accounts of his negotiations with Congress and at the Peace Conference show a more talented politician than I had envisioned. Berg does not overlook Wilson’s uncompromising devotion to the League of Nations that European powers and Senate Republicans exploited and that, in the end, destroyed both Wilson and the Peace Treaty. I had long viewed Woodrow as an overrated president whose victory tragically denied the United States another Theodore Roosevelt Administration, and still do, but “Wilson” has educated me to a new respect for its subject.
- Was this review helpful to you?


Tags
All user tags (1)
- Woodrow Wilson (by 1 person)
- 1 items are tagged withWoodrow Wilson
Similar Items
Related Subjects:(12)
- Wilson, Woodrow, -- 1856-1924.
- Wilson, Woodrow -- 1856-1924
- Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer
- Presidents -- United States -- Biography.
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1913-1921.
- Politics and government
- Presidents.
- United States.
- Presidenter.
- Politiska förhållanden -- historia.
- United States -- Politics and government.
- NEW LIST 20131031.
User lists with this item (5)
- October 2017 New Books List(234 items)
by CrownCollegeLibrary updated 2017-10-28
- Borghese LIST 1 Library Books (465 items)
by Borghese updated 2015-06-06
- Chemeketa New Books List(64 items)
by Chemeketalib updated 2014-06-17
- New Books November 2013-VU Library(36 items)
by maawilson updated 2013-11-25
- Most popular additions for September 2013(100 items)
by jamesfitch updated 2013-10-01