Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr.

This was an interesting book. Woodrow Wilson was one of the Presidents who did not follow the normal patch to political success. Wilson was an academic. He had become an attourney but his heart was not in it and he gravitated to academia ending up as a Professor at Princeton and eventually President of the same.

Remarkably he soon became a contender for the Governorship of New Jersey and directly after this election he became a strong contender for the Democratic nomination for President. The timing was perfect, the Democrats had been in the proverbial wasteland for so long the party was devoid of contenders, the fact that William Jennings Bryan who had been the nominee three times for the Democrats in the last twenty years showed this.

In 1912 the Republicans fractured with Teddy Roosevelt bolting the party after Taft was renomindated as the incumbent. An argument could be made that this split made the path much easier for Wilson although with the Progressive backers being a strange mix from both parties it is hard to know if this is true.

Wilson has been criticized for his League of Nations idea or perhaps more so for his failure to compromise on the ratification of the treaty with the Senate which revolted against Wilson led by Henry Cabot Lodge.

Wilson did accomplish many things in office but for whatever reason those accomplishments have not become a part of the common historical record. His personality was not one considered warm and he did indeed have a way of grating on even those in his corner.

Wilson after working tirelessly in Europe at the culmination of World War II returned home haggard, drawn and tired and soon suffered a major stroke. This certainly limited his ability to fight for the treaty, though it seems unlikely that he would have ever had the votes to accomplish his goals unless he showed a heretofore ability to compromise.

After having read recently Colenol Roosevelt, the story of Roosevelt's later years including Wilson's Presidency this book certainly tells the history from a differnt point of view. Interestingly the histories are told quite similarily, however a sure difference is the Roosevelt book centers much on his disagreements with Wilson's policies while the Wilson book acknowledges Roosevelt's disagreements but does not seem to infer Roosevelt and his disagreement had much of impact on Wilson.

Wilson was a self contained man and it could well be true that no disagreement really bothered him. He was an enigma. He was however the only two term Democratic president between Jackson and FDR with the exception of Cleveland whose terms were not successive. This was quite an accomplishment against the grain of the current politic.

Many of his ideas became templates and precursors to the ideas of FDR, his Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Wilson's legacy will always be conflicted but his import should not be. This is an interesting read and one well worth your time.