Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's hard to say who comes off worse here: President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), depicted as arrogant, egotistical, and so poor at negotiation or compromise it's a wonder he ever got involved in politics; or his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1872-1961), portrayed as deceptive, unreflective, and encouraging of the president's worst qualities to an extent that had grave consequences for America and the world. Journalist Phyllis Lee Levin, author of a previous biography of Abigail Adams, scathingly assesses the Wilson marriage, which took place in 1915 only 16 months after the death of his beloved first wife. It was, she argues persuasively, the fatal union of a narcissistic, self-righteous man with an uncritically admiring woman who isolated her husband from other people even before his disabling stroke on October 2, 1919. At that critical juncture, with a host of serious international issues resulting from World War I facing the nation, Edith Wilson conspired with the president's doctor to cover up the gravity of his condition and forestall any talk of the vice president assuming command. (Levin's account of Wilson's impaired physical and mental state leaves little doubt that this would have been constitutionally justified.) She kept cabinet members away from him and took it upon herself to interpret his wishes for the rest of the government. The U.S. Senate's refusal to ratify the League of Nations was one result of the way Edith Wilson handled this crisis, hence she must bear some responsibility for the diplomatic failures that led to World War II. It's never entirely enjoyable to read a book in which the author's distaste for her subjects is so evident, but Levin's relentlessly detailed (though always readable) chronicle fascinates with its depiction of "the influence wielded over great decisions by a woman of narrow views and formidable determination." --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

Former New York Times reporter Levin (Abigail Adams) delivers a beautifully written and impeccably researched account of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson and her key role after President Woodrow Wilson's stroke on October 2, 1919. The second Mrs. Wilson who had married the president one year after the untimely death of First Lady Ellen Wilson acted very much like a regent, restricting access to her sickly husband and issuing executive orders and directives that she presented at the time (and later, in her memoirs) as Wilson's own instructions. As Levin demonstrates, however, "the story of Wilson's second marriage, and of the large events on which its shadow was cast, is darker and more devious, and more astonishing, than previously recorded." Drawing on a wealth of formerly unavailable medical reports, White House memoranda and internal executive-branch communiqu‚s, Levin shows that the second Mrs. Wilson did indeed run the executive branch, if not the government as a whole, during Wilson's last year and a half in office. These issues have been discussed in more than one previous history, but no other writer has gone as deeply into the archives to marshal the strong proof that Levin presents. Most important are the original notes from Wilson's physician Cary Grayson released only recently by Grayson's sons which make clear that in his stroke Wilson suffered a devastating trauma so profound that it precluded, in Grayson's words, anything "more than a minimal state of recovery." The man described in the newly available medical documents was, by definition, unfit and unable to hold office. And the unelected Mrs. Wilson, it appears, violated both the public trust and the Constitution when she, posing as her husband's spokesperson, made executive branch policy. Photos not seen by PW. Agent, Sterling Lord. (Oct. 11). Forecast: The September publication of Kati Marton's Hidden Power: Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our Recent History, with a chapter on the Wilsons, will help focus media attention on the role of presidential wives; this excellent account should ride the ensuing wave to healthy sales.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First edition. edition (September 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743211588
• ISBN-13: 978-0743211581
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #728,747 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of America's Best Books, September 30, 2001

By A Customer

Not only is it spectacularly written, but this book is an absolute esstential for those who thrive on presidential history, American history, politics, power, marriage and emotion. WHat balances it all is the most painstaking sort of detail that has been necessary for some 80 years. It tells the truth and it gives the facts to back it up. The irony is that Edith Wilson should now rank as the worst First Lady in history: selfish, narrow-minded, ignorant, greedy, bigoted...with phenomenal street smarts and intuition. The narrative flows like gold - even for those who "hate" history it is a marvelous journey.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, June 25, 2002

By	"dbresset" (Herndon, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Being a fan of presidential biographies and after having read some books on both of the Wilsons, I was very excited to see what appeared to be a dual biography of the couple. Levin's book was dry and downright boring . It is a very interesting and debatable premise....whether Edith Wilson really "ran" the White House when Woodrow was incapacitated by stroke.
My complaints are that the book was much more Woodrow than Edith and I am still not sure I feel like I buy Levin's theme that Edith was the first female president.
I was surprised to learn just how incapacitated Wilson was and how little the country was aware of.
This could have been a much better book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Expands greatly on those inimations that Edith Wilson was, January 28, 2002

By	JOHN GODFREY (Milwaukee ,WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

indeed acting as Wilson proxy after his massive stroke in 0ctober 1919. One thing above all Ms. Levin wants to make clear. After his stroke, Wilson was never again competent to be president. The deception that ensued is the real point of the book. Ms. Levin hates Edith Wilson. Mostly for the memoirs she wrote sometime after Wilson's death. It is false, selfserving re-
visionist history, that became wildly popular and regularly accepted as the definitive work from of the Wilson presidency. It was later made into a major motion picture with Edith approving ever word of the script. Ms Levin seeks to destroy that work quoting from it often & then blowing it apart. It seems credible that Edith was the defacto president for the last 16 months of his administration.
If Woodrow Wilson was not a dirty old man he certainly needed a woman at all times: for sex , unquestioning obedience & loyalty to him. He got that essentially from three woman: his adoring & adored first wife, Ellen who died rather suddenly early in his administration, his mistress Mary Peck, who he visited regulary in Bermuda before he married Edith. Soon after they met, Edith & he were joined at the hip, figuratively & literally. She was able with much sucess to isolate Woodrow from those he relied on most notably Col. Edward House, as they took him away from time spent with her. Their personalities did not complement each other as they were the same. They were petty, stubborn, dogmatic paranoid & uncompromising in their principals. So much were they alike that actions taken by Edith in secret could very well have come from the president... up to a point. The cornerstone of Wilson's presidency, the one thing that would have made him perhaps the greatest president of all time was the
U.S. entry into his own creation: The League of Nations. As written the U.S. Senate would not, did not ratify the treaty. A few revisions, a word here & there would have won the day. Wilson thru his wife did not budge. She did not have that in her. Perhaps if the president had been lobbied his sense of what was about to be lost would have prevailed. But we will never know. Plus Wilson hated Senator Lodge & Edith did not have enough character to bring these two men together. The comfort & protection of one man by one women changed the history of a nation & the world.
One mistake in the book. In the photo section is a picture of The Wilsons posing with royal family at Buckingham Palace, December 28, 1919. Not likely since Wison was quite incapacitated at that time. Page 395 indicates that on December 20, 1919, Wilson was wheeled out of the White House for an "airing". Nor could he have been in Paris on December 14, 1919, as another photo indicated.