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Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

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While in many ways this is a good, solid biography of Woodrow Wilson, the author's idolization of his subject colors the portrait. For example, there are multiple instances where Cooper writes that another person suggested an idea to Wilson. Cooper follows this fact with the assertion that Wilson would have thought up the idea on his own. As this happens multiple times it seems odd. There are a myriad of additional ways the author is defensive of long standing criticisms and interpretations of Wilson. Also, there is too much dependence on the diaries of Edward House, which seem untrustworthy. Cooper recognizes this, but leans heavily on them anyway. The narrative could be stronger and more concise. However, I suspect that this is the most thorough and detailed biography available. I recommend it, but I also recommend reading it with an awareness of the author's bias.

Professor Cooper has written a most outstanding biography of the academic Woodrow Wilson turned politician. It is an honest and complete appraisal of the man who was our only President with a Ph.D. degree. It is well-written; with each chapter flowing smoothly from start to finish. It is well-researched; every major primary source has been consulted, with an expertise that shows in this finished product. I highly recommend this book for even the casual reader of presidential history; every graduate History and Political Science student should include this on their reading list.

J.M. Cooper wrote previously the best book on the period following the Armistice, "Breaking the Heart of the World". This biography of Wilson brings together virtually all aspects of the chararcter of this complex leader--in a comprehensive, clear and impartial fashion. Cooper shows where Wilson was wrong and Wilson was right. In all instances, Wilson was human--either arrogant or humble. His ideas and policies, wrong and right, still permeate American political thought. The book should be read by all our historians and by individuals aspiring to be president.

This book provides an interesting account of not only the accomplishments, but also the failures that marked Woodrow Wilson's political and academic careers. It is a well written biography of a stubborn, bold, and intelligent man.

I have just finished this book. I loved it. It provides a great deal of information about the American political system (great for a non-American) at the turn of the century - surprisingly still very relevant today - as well as a detailed picture of the goings-on at the 1919 Peace conference, and ultimately the rejection by Congress of the Peace Treaty negotiated by Wilson, and the League of Nations Covenant,

Its also an insighful analysis of the man Wilson. I particularly like this line, describing Wilson shorty after his stroke:
"Whereas he had formerly been able to offset his driving determination, combativeness, and overweening self-confidence with detachment, reflection, and self-criticism, those compensations were now largely gone". Food for thought.

My thanks to Mr. Cooper for this monumental job.

During the last days of his presidency,one famous journalist,Ray Stannard Baker, has visited Woodrow Wilson,who was recovering from a strong stroke.Baker was shocked and wrote:"A broken,ruined old man,shuffling along his left arm inert,the fingers drawn up like a claw,the left side of his face sagging frightfully.His voice is not human;it gurgles in his throat,sounds like that of an automaton.And yet his mind seems as alert as ever."
Sic transit gloria Wilson.He was indeed a very controversial president and his actions are still felt today.Suffice it to mention the Versailles Treaty which in itself caused a lot of post-war problems and is regarded as a conclave which has brought only further divisions and hardships among the many nations that were scrutinized and debated then.
Wilson was a Democrat who ascended to the White House after many years of Republican administrations,and he wanted to be remembered as a president who had worked in order to change not only his country but also the world order.It was Wilson who guided his nation through WW1 and Professor Cooper is extremely adroit in demonstrating how many efforts Wilson has made in order to avoid America's entrance into this horrible war.Volens nolens,in the end he had no choice and the barbaric submarine war conducted by the Germans pin addition to the Zimmermann telegram were the last straws which were used by the president to convene the Congress in order to declare war against Germany and its Allies.The isolationist days of America were over and now Wilson went out on a crusade to make the world safe for democracy.
Another controversial aspect discussed at length in this fascinating study is the way the subject of the League of Nations was advocated by Wilson but proved to be unsuccessful.In spite of this, Wilson managed to change the way people and policy makers would think about international relations that would carry America into the United Nations era.
On the one hand Wilson appears to be detached and cool, while on the other hand he is deeply a passionate man in his private life and Professor Cooper is superb when describing the president's private affairs, his two wives(Ellen and Edith),his lover(Peck), his children and in-laws.Quotes from the president's letters are supplied throughout the study.
Yet Wilson also vehemntly resisted progress for civil rights,while his attorney general launched an aggressive attack on civil liberties.Race relations were totally ignored.Wilson was prepared to fight his enemies and adversaries with all the means he got from his days as president at Princeton.He was the msot intellectual president the USA has had and one of his books is still regarded a milestone for those who study politics and constitutional law.It was Wilson who took care to nominate the first Jewish judge ,Louis D. brandeis,to the Supreme Court,in the era when anti-semitism played a significant role in the USA.Despite coming from a religious home,Wilson did not go to war in 1917 because he thought God was telling him to do so.As the president put it:"War is not declared in the name of God:it is a human affair entirely".Unlike Theodore Roosevelt,his greatest rival,he never compared politics to religion and preaching and had never supported the greatest moral reform crusade of their time-Prohibition.He despised Fundamentalist manifestations.
The best part of the book is the second one where Wilson is busy in his efforts to establish peace in Europe.The negotiations had worn him out physically and emotionally and the decisions he made in the process of peace-making have stirred almost as much argument as his decision to enter the war.His famous Fourteen Points have caused a lot of controversies not only in Europe but also at home and this further drew fire from his opponents.His stroke which made him an invalide also led America to undergo the worst presidential crisis in American history.
As Professor Cooper points out, many saw or regarded Wilson as an Amerian Icarus,who perished because he flew too close to the sun.Boldness and thinking big marked the president all his life,and this charaterized him during his days at Princeton and as the governor of New Jersey.
This volume is very rich in details and is a very comprehensive combination of scholarship and narrative and shows an extraordinary but also deeply flawed president and leader who started hsi career as a dynamic reformer and ended it shortsighted and delusional.

I picked up this biography hoping to learn more about the man that was Woodrow Wilson; and I did. Though this book was boring in some spots, and I had to put it aside a couple of times, I found the man fascinating and how he was able to do all the great things he set out to do. Though Wilson was not the greatest of our presidents, he was definitely up there when it came to running and presenting himself as a good man, that did well for our country. The writing is good and dense, but don't be surprised if you might doze a couple of times. I might lay off the political subject for awhile in my future reads, since I received an overdose of it in this volume. Also, I was a little disappointed with the writer when WWI became the prime subject. I didn't learn anything about the Great War, and that was one thing I was hoping to get great detail on. The author should have given more information about the war, then just how Wilson was involved in it.

Dr. John Milton Cooper, Jr. has taken his more that forty years of scholarship into the pivotal first twenty years of the 20th Century to write a meticulously research and detailed account of the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson A President who is still a very controversial figure full of contradiction. While Wilson is proclaimed a great reformer he is also denounced for bring "Jim Crow" racial discrimination into full force in the Federal Government. The author of the "Fourteen Points" who severely limited civil liberties during and after World War One. The leader who in the eyes of many conservatives is condemned as an arrogant intellectual whose distaste for the constraints of the constitution and belief in the continual evolution of our political institutions lead to an enormous, and abusive centralization of power in the federal government. A position layout in scholarly form by Ronald J. Pestritto in his "Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism. On the other hand Wilson is often defended as a gifted, idealistic, rigid and ultimately tragic leader who as president brought the Progressive Era movement to its legislative zenith and pushed America into the 20th Century. What is not in dispute is Woodrow Wilson critical impact on the direction of the United Status.

Into this mix of conflicting views Dr. Cooper has tried to present a detailed sympathetic review of Woodrow Wilson's life. Arguing in a revisionary manor for Woodrow Wilson position as one of the great presidents worthy of our attention in the 21st Century.

The real strength of this book comes for Dr. Cooper's ability to portray the world through Wilson's eyes In making his argument Dr. Cooper gives great attention to the personal as he fleshes out a complicated person who has been far too easily pigeonholed. As Dr. Cooper writes: "Behind Woodrow Wilson's distinctive and often caricatured features - his long nose, big jaw and pince-nez eyeglasses - lay one of the deepest and most daring souls ever to inhabit the White house:" Dr Cooper when not dealing with the character of Wilson offers a very detailed political history recounting in great detail the lengthy political battles to pass his long lists of transformative legislation and finally the ultimate failures of his diplomatic initiatives at the end of World War One. The book is not strong on putting Wilson within the social context of the era. To understand, the enormous social and economic changes driving this period one needs to turn to other works such as the classic "Age of Reform" written by Richard Hofstadter.

In summary Dr. Cooper has offered a very detailed somewhat lengthy view into the life and character of Woodrow Wilson. Well written for a general audience, but with the scholarly depth to be a key reference for student of this period for decades to come

The traditional view of Wilson is that he was greatly influenced by his minister father and the family's religious dogma. Consequently, his politics, both national and academic, were as hard and unyielding as the faith that guided it. Cooper rejects that framework early on and suggests the picture of Wilson is more complicated than the stereotype. But his narrative ended up supporting the standard interpretation, even if Cooper fails to say so directly. Where Wilson was seen as stubborn, Cooper calls him determined, uncompromising, tenacious. Cooper rarely comments directly on Wilson's religiosity, but mentions it in passing time and time again: He violated his rule of not working on the Sabbath, or he found solace in his faith, or quoted a Bible passage. The stereotype makes Wilson a racist even by the standards of his time; Cooper all but ignores this important facet, calling it only puzzling that such a man so progressive in other areas would be so backward in his treatment of race.

In fact, Cooper finds a lot of things "puzzling" about Wilson. That word appears frequently, along with other admissions by the author of things he doesn't understand about Wilson's motivations and behavior. The religious framework explains a lot; the best Cooper can do by rejecting it is to say he doesn't know why Wilson behaved as he did.

And nowhere is that lack of clarity more glaring than in the subject of race. Cooper ignores it almost entirely. He gives cursory mention to the fact that Wilson dismissed -- or allowed to be dismissed -- all the African Americans in the federal government. This Cooper finds strange, and (perhaps for that reason) ignores the matter altogether. If anything is puzzling, it is Cooper's decision to downplay that important issue. The only other time he even brings up race is to remark on how Wilson lost his celebrated cool while talking to a black leader. For Cooper, the issue was Wilson's cool demeanor, not his cold heart. Much could be explained by reference to the traditional view of Wilson, but this Cooper rejected several hundred pages before.

He does a little better on the subject of women's suffrage, but does not really go into too much detail here either. Another subject Cooper downplays is the American participation in the Russian Civil War after the 1917 Bolshevik takeover. He correctly frames it within the context of World War I, but American troops continued fighting there after the war was over. "The decision to intervene," as Kennan called it, had significant long-term consequences for US-Soviet relations--or, at the very least, gave Moscow a significant propaganda tool. Cooper mentions it, and then drops it after a page or so.

Besides the religious framework, Cooper also rejects two other stereotypes about Wilson: that Col. House was the power behind the throne in the early years, and that Edith took over presidential duties during Wilson's stroke. In both of these, the author is, I think, more successful at painting the varied picture he attempts.

The author gives Wilson credit for progressive legislation passed at the beginning of his first term, but does not go into nearly enough detail on the background of the issues, or Wilson's commitment to them, in order to justify that credit. The omission is especially conspicuous when contrasted with the minute detail presented on Wilson's struggle for Article X and the League of Nations. This may be simply be a case of the author filtering the material through his own interests; his earlier book on the League goes into even more detail, and is also a good read.

The idea that Cooper's own interests drove this book is also apparent elsewhere. His analysis of the 1912 election, about which he has also written, is extraordinary and at times original. I don't always agree with his views of Roosevelt, but the section on the election, especially the comparison of the New Nationalism and the New Freedom, is worth the price of the book.

Cooper likes Wilson, and is inclined to read the best of intentions where he can, and ignore those areas where he cannot. Where Wilson makes mistakes, Cooper understands why, and suggests to us that, after all, Woodrow was only human, and anyone would have reacted that way. I find the those rationalizations a bit off putting.

Finally, judging from Cooper's treatment, Wilson was not close to his children and had little to say to them. His major relationships are with his wives, Ellen and Edith, and these provide the bulk of our connection to Wilson as a human being. Woodrow the father practically doesn't exist. So it's a stretch to call this a true "life of Wilson." It's more of a political biography. In that, Cooper knows his subject. The research--his knowledge and use of sources both primary and secondary--is superb. The writing is accessible, although I dislike the literary device of presenting a quotation in one context and then citing it again in another a few pages later.

In all, Cooper's book is an integral part of the resurgence of interest in Wilson almost 100 years after his election.

A very nice biography of Woodrow Wilson. He began his adult career as an academic, became President of Princeton University, was elected governor of New Jersey, and--finally--he was elected President of the United States. He was not just an ordinary academic either, but the author of journal articles and books that were--for the time--well reputed. A political scientist who became elected to political office. . . .

The book follows him through his life course. It portrays his strengths and his weaknesses. He had an analytical mind, thought things through, and could be definitive in his decision-making. On the other hand, he could be very stubborn, sometimes creating problems when he served as President of Princeton, Governor of New Jersey, and President of the United States. He held views on race that were problematic.

Politically, he began as rather conservative, but won elections as a progressive Democrat. His background in the south helped shape some of his views, although he was hardly an unreconstructed Confederate.

The book also displays his personal life--his happy first marriage, the death of his wife, and his second marriage. . . .

The sad last years of his life are well depicted. It seems clear, from the author's research, that Wilson had had earlier medical problems that presaged the massive illness occurring late in his presidency.

In short, this is a fine biography of Woodrow Wilson.