Customer Reviews

Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study

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This book presents a "personality study" of Wilson. I ordered it as a political scientist interested in individual-level analyses of international relations. I came to it with little or no particular interest in Wilson or House (who?) or American politics during the Wilson administration. I knew nothing of the authors.

I read the book in 2 days because I could not put it down. It well deserves the status of "classic." Although the psychological disposition and development of Wilson provide a motif throughout, the authors state their case in moderate terms and are kind enough to limit jargon-filled discussions to very few pages. Some readers will sense contradictions in the analysis, but they are not too distracting. Meanwhile, an impressive tale is told. The reader goes from the singing of hymns in church as a child to a bizarre last speech on a balcony (before Wilson dies). Wilson emerges as a perfectionist, an idealist, one full of self-doubt, and yet one unwilling to compromise EVER ! He also emerges as someone who had low self-esteem and a giant, hyper-sensitive ego which allowed him about 3 friends (his 2 wives and Colonel House). House was valued by Wilson because he knew how (and was willing)to flatter and say "yes" a lot to Wilson (to his face anyway). Personal diaries and letters add color to the discussion of the relationship. Wilson's complex make-up interestingly resulted in all too predictable dispositions and behavior. Participants at the Paris Peace Conference and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge understood this and played him like a cheap deck of cards. Thus, this great read teaches lessons about politics, personality and life!

This book analyzes Woodrow Wilson's personality and his relationships with others throughout his adult life. A lot of the material centers on his quests for power, first as an educator and then in politics.
Colonel Edward House was one of three people to really become a confidant of Wilson.

The sources for the book from Wilson are personal letters he wrote as well as speeches he gave. The personal papers of Edward Mandell House were also used as a source.

From reading this book it is evident that Woodrow Wilson had severe personality flaws. His mental health problems in the 1890's were troubling! He was also obsessive in his pursuit of the presidency at the expense of anyone he could utilize to achieve that goal.

What I took from the book was that Wilson was a megalomaniac and Edward House was a shrewd political manipulator(until the end of their friendship) that eventually was perceived by Wilson as a threat.

On the presidential term, the book focuses on the defeat of the League of Nations which was aided mostly by Wilson's refusal to compromise. The authors also detail the circumstances of the falling out between Wilson and House.

This is an excellent book about the psychology of Woodrow Wilson. Not as much attention is spent on House or some of the major changes in the U.S during Wilson's administration, namely the Federal Reserve Act, and Income tax.

Overall WOODROW WILSON AND COLONEL HOUSE provides some insight on Woodrow Wilson from childhood to death. This book also addresses some of the politics and politicians of the WWI era.

I came across this book as an Amazon recommendation.
Wilson was one of my least favourite Presidents - so I thought this may give me another perspective.
I was captivated by the book - the complexity of WW's charachter, the same mistakes continuously repeated with links to his parental relationships.
In 50 years time someone will write a best seller of the Clintons as a psychological profile - this was the precedent.

Great book. Great surprise.

A very good political analysis of Woodrow Wilson and the friendship with Colonel House. The emphasis is on World War I and the failure to reach agreement on the League of Nations which consumes about half the book. The relationship between the two is indeed bizarre - both individuals are in need of psychiatric help. Wilson for being inordinately hard-headed and unrelentingly stubborn. House almost exists in two realities - praising and a "yes-man" to Wilson, but venting criticism in his diaries for most of the duration of their relationship. The authors point out that most of Wilson's behaviour patterns during the League of Nations debacle was readily apparent during his Presidency of Princeton University.

Wilson was a very hard-headed President - he was unable to delegate tasks particularly if they became part of his "Pet Projects". He would surround himself with cronies who he knew would be agreeable to his ideas. Colonel House was the "top crony" until the Paris period. The prime reason for the failure of the League of Nations was Wilson's inability to compromise on even minor revisions proposed by the U.S. Senate. Over the years Wilson had built up many adversaries due to his incapability to respect the rights of Senate members who disagreed with him. Wilson even failed to compromise with Senate revisions after representatives of the French and British Governments stated that they were amenable to the proposed alterations. Accommodation and negotiation were simply not a part of Wilson's belief system.

Wilson also single-handedly managed the U.S. negotiations in Paris which further alienated the Senate and Congress.

Despite attempts to put "Wilson on the Freudian couch" there are some missing pieces in this. Nothing is said about the relation of Wilson to his children and only generalizations about a domineering father.

As already alluded to Wilson was very much his own person - he was adopted by a right-wing cabal to run for the Presidency but immediately dropped their pretences and passed very progressive legislation. He was disturbed by events in Europe, but reluctant for the United States to enter the War. Prior to the U.S. Declaration of War in 1917 he sent House over twice to attempt to negotiate a peace between the belligerents. His only consolation was to enter the War on the condition that afterwards he would formulate a peace and the "League of Nations". But alas, in this single-minded determination, he failed due to his personality dysfunctions. Franklin Roosevelt, by contrast, was a far more astute politician and knew how to negotiate and ingratiate himself with adversaries, and he also could delegate.

As additional notes:
The psycho-babble in the introduction was irrelevant and silly - possibly this is due to the Freudian vogue in wave when the book was written in the early 1960's.
Although the United States was allegedly against colonialism, they brooked no interference with their Monroe Doctrine (this was one of the Senate reserve clauses).

required reading as background history to understand the future we need to understand the past to the best of our abilities