Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable introduction and overview, April 12, 2000
This review is from: Woodrow Wilson (Penguin Lives Biographies) (Hardcover)
Louis Auchincloss provides an interesting introduction and overview of Wilson's personality and presidency. He touches on the major issues Wilson faced as President of Princton University as well as President of the US and shows how Wilson's intransigence was evident from early on. Auchincloss has reviewed the more recent literature as well, and provides some interesting information as Wilson's health. As a lawyer, Auchincloss also provides interesting analysis of the evidence on various issues still in dispute (was Wilson really signing those documents after he had a stroke and his wife wouldn't let anyone see him?). Finally, he produces a nice little portrait of Wilson's nemesis, Henry Cabot Lodge, as well. I doubt that any real student of the Wilson Presidency could learn much in a volume that barely exceeds 100 pages, but for others who wouldn't mind spending a couple of hours learning something about Wilson and his presidency, it serves its purpose admirably.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Woodrow Wilson, November 24, 2000
This review is from: Woodrow Wilson (Penguin Lives Biographies) (Hardcover)
In Woodrow Wilson, Louis Auchincloss provides a useful, albeit brief account of our 28th President. The book touches on the highlights, both good and bad, of Wilson's life, and gives the reader insight into the complexity of Wilson's mind. Readers of Woodrow Wilson will find a man of enormous intellect who viewed himself as somehow ordained by God to lead the world into a higher level of peace and harmony, but who also battled with arrogance that did not allow him to accept gracious defeat. As a history professor he was well liked by students, but as university president he was beset by strife involving administrative decisions. He appealed to Democrats who wished to cleanse the party of William Jennings Bryan's influence, and accepted the nomination for Governor of New Jersey accordingly. He even adopted a Populist position to appeal to the masses. When the Republican Party divided in 1912, he was assured the Presidency. In that office he was forced to balance personal convictions and political realities that culminated over the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. This ultimately proved to be Wilson's demise. Auchincloss' portrait explores many of these complexities, but at times appears to gloss them over. The rivalry between Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge oddly is detailed from Lodge's perspective, but the author does not particularize how Wilson reciprocated. Auchincloss does not describe in depth the differences between Lodge's snobbish Harvard arrogance, Theodore Roosevelt's heroic jingoism of a bygone era, and Wilson's self-righteous purveyance of his own world order, and how each affected the others as well as the world around them. Auchincloss also has difficulty in describing Germany in World War One in that it was fighting a war of delaying defeat by 1916 and not turning the tide towards victory. In the end, however, readers will find Auchincloss' work useful and poignant. He inserts comparisons to future Presidents in an amusing way while discussing the merits of Wilson's administration. Woodrow Wilson may not be a definitive work but, due in part to its brevity, should be considered appropriate reading for High School level history courses.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Shallow and opinionated essay on Wilson, July 16, 2000
This review is from: Woodrow Wilson (Penguin Lives Biographies) (Hardcover)
To begin with, this is really a biographical essay, not a complete biography of Woodrow Wilson in any sense of that word, even discounting the shortness of the book. (In fact, it is only 128 pages long--not 176 pages, as Amazon's listing indicates.) Auchincloss presents at best the highlights of Wilson's life, with hardly any insight or analysis. The essay would have had more merit if published in a larger volume on Wilson or his times; standing alone, it is of questionable merit. In fact, I cannot imagine what possessed the publisher to select this author or to issue the book after they received it in draft. Auchincloss is primarily a novelist and a man of letters and quite obviously lacks the credentials to write a biography of a major political leader; his product is extremely superficial. In light of this, his decision to devote an entire chapter--12 pages of digression from the Wilson life story--to Henry Cabot Lodge, Wilson's nemesis at the end of his political career--seems highly questionable. (Had the biography of Wilson itself been more complete, this might have been justifiable.) It would have been better to include more detail on Wilson's two wives--especially his second wife, who essentially took over the Presidency after his major stroke. The book is replete with the author's opinions of how Wilson should or should not have behaved, with little or no justification for these positions. An example: In discussing American intervention in Mexico prior to World War I, Auchincloss characterizes Mexican leaders Carranza and Pancho Villa as "not too much better" than President Huerta--for whom Wilson showed "moral disapproval"--and in fact notes that Villa was "worse." No rationale whatsoever is given for these comparisons. He notes that "Wilson probably handled a messy situation as well as could be expected," but does not explain why. Fortunately, there are numerous good biographies of Woodrow Wilson available. It seems difficult to believe that the author really consulted many of them.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
