When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson [Paperback]

Gene Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1971

Paperback No hand writing Not ex-library Buy from a trusted librarian!

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co (June 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688060110
• ISBN-13: 978-0688060114
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,746,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, March 5, 2002

By 

Tim Lieder "Founder of Dybbuk Press" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson (Paperback)

The strange thing about reading history books written before one was born (in this case 1964) is that that biases are all different. This book laments the collapse of the League of Nations and Woodrow Wilson. Ten years later, no one would dare write about American intervention in the world stage in quite so laudatory tones. Issues that bother modern historians such as the unconstitutional incarceration of Eugene Debs, race riots, Wilson's racism including anti-German hysteria, the Imperialism of the other League Nations as well as the anti-sedition laws get swept under the rug.

Despite the bias, this is an amazingly personal look at a man who tried to sell a great plan to the United States only to be disappointed by Congress and the American people. It discusses his illness, his lack of willingness to compromise, his ineffectiveness as a leader. It also goes into great details about his wife's role in keeping the administration afloat, although it portrays her as a vindictive shrew. There's some interesting information about his daughters (true to WASP fasion, one of his daughters tried on several strange religions before taking off to India and dying of dysentry in the 40s).

While some of the material is lacking (see first paragraph) and while the enemies of America's involvement in the League are portrayed in a rather sinister fashion, this is still an excellent read and introduction to the post-WWI history.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent research, sympathetic treatment, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson (Paperback)

I picked this book up for $1, and would recommend it at thirty times that amount to anyone who loves history or biography. I was vaguely aware of Wilson's life and work, but after reading this book I feel as if I knew the man personally. Well-done, mostly fair, very human -- I cried more than once.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Woodrow Wilson's Final Act, February 5, 2011

By 

Marc Korman (Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When the cheering stopped: The last years of Woodrow Wilson (Time reading program special edition) (Paperback)

As the other reviewers noted, When The Cheering Stopped is an excellent telling of the last years of Woodrow Wilson essentially from the time he went to Paris for the World War I peace negotiations until his death in 1924. Those were years of marked decline for Wilson as he suffered a major political setback with the Senate's rejection of the League of Nations and a major health setback in the form of a series of embolisms that eventually led to his death. In many ways, the book suggests that they are related.

Although the book certainly treats Wilson as a great president, towering intellect, and good person, it is a little less sympathetic than other reviews may lead you to believe. The book certainly understands that, overall, the situation that developed in the last year of Wilson's presidency where he could barely function was not good for the country. Vice President Marshall and the Congress obviously should have acted more forcefully to get the president to resign or even impeach him if necessary. Partly as a result of Wilson, there is now a mechanism in the 25th Amendment to deal with an invalid president. The book does suggest Wilson had a little more functionality, at least in fleeting moments, in his final years than other sources have led me to believe. The book also condemns Wilson's second wife, Edith, by demonstrating that her vindictiveness for certain individuals such as British Ambassador Lord Grey, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Tumulty made a bad situation worse. Although you have to admire her love and loyalty to her husband, her way of expressing it led to erratic behavior from the White House.

The last third of the book is about Wilson's post-presidency, told with more detail than I thought possible. Wilson's health recovered a bit and Americans, at least in DC, expressed appreciation by applauding him at shows and lining the street to see him. This gives a somewhat happier ending to a sad, almost delusional decline by Wilson (he kept dreaming of a third term for example).