Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations First Edition
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Cooper's analysis is acute, even-handed and remarkably free of the sentimentality (or scorn) that so often colors writing about Wilson." Jeff Shesol, The New York Times Book Review
"The end of the Cold War has brought renewed support for--and renewed opposition to--the Wilsonian vision of the international future. Breaking the Heart of the World, a splendid fusion of absorbing narrative and crisp analysis, is the book that explains authoritatively what in fact Woodrow Wilson was up to and the difference he hoped to make in all our lives." Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
"It did not have to happen. At any point Wilson could have had his treaty. It opponents cold have had their reservations. Good men failed. It broke the heart of the world, and for the rest of the centruy things were never the same. John Milton Cooper, Jr.'s account is, well, heartbreaking." Daniel Patrick Moynihan
"Mr. Cooper has made a substantial contribution to our understanding of Woodrow Wilson, both as man and myth, and has thoroughly fleshed out a political and diplomatic narrative that will not be easily or soon surpassed." Washington Times
"A most probing, balanced, and enlightening treatment of Wilson and the League, drawn from a remarkable array of sources and from this distinguished historian's decades of study on the project." James MacGregor Burns, Williams College
"This beautifully crafted book--at once dramatically engaging and intellectually stimualting--offers a new and highly significant analysis of a subject of inestimable importance in understanding international relations in the modern epcoh. Breaking the Heart of the World is a work by an eminent historian at the top of his form. It will not only rank as one of the truly great books ever written about Woodrow Wilson; it may also make a notable contribution to public discourse on American foreign policy in our own time." Thomas J. Knock, author of To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order
"Dismiss the idea that yet another book on the League fight might be reluctant. Cooper places the struggle in the widest possible context and in the process makes a major contribution to out understanding of the sometimes troubling nature of American political culture. He also provides a needed lesson for the current generation of historians, namely that insight and judiciousness are not mutually exclusive qualities." William C. Widenor, author of Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy
"John Milton Cooper, Jr. has produced a masterpiece of meticulous scholarship and incisive argumentation. Never before has the debate on American participation in the Leagu of Nations been so thoroughly analyzed on the basis of such extensive research. An never before have the implications of Woodrow Wilson's ultimate failure been so intelligently--and so regretfully-explored." Niall Ferguson, author of The Pity of War: Explaining World War I
"Breaking the Heart of the World is a meticulously researched and well-written study of Wilson's efforts." Claremont Review of Books
Book Description
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Product details
- Publisher : Cambridge University Press; First Edition (September 24, 2001)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 468 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0521807867
- ISBN-13 : 978-0521807869
- Item Weight : 1.72 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.19 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,313,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,394 in International Relations (Books)
- #5,126 in United States History (Books)
- #27,698 in International & World Politics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

John Milton Cooper, Jr., is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of Breaking the Heart of the World: Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations and The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, among other books. He was recently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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The reason for writing this review is to register my praise for John Cooper's work in this book. (This is also my first Cooper read.) His writing style conveys the discipline of one who's researched so deeply that he's had to withhold a great deal and share only that which tells his story. One almost gets the feeling that one is reading a first-hand account. Cooper's is an incisive style, full of depth. He doesn't rush to an end but his prose remains sharp throughout.
I heard that when this book was finally published that he was asked by his students as he entered class from which school of thought he wrote. His answer to them is adeptly illustrated in the text: he let the evidence carry the story. This said, the reader can find answers to questions about who, what, when, where, and how. The evidence that tells this story seems to limit Cooper from answering the question that I especially would like to have read, which is why. Why did the actors do what they did? This is the one reason I give this book four stars. For example, Cooper clearly explains that the Senators who opposed Wilson in the Fight were hardly nor simply Southern isolationists as commonly supposed since most of his strongest support came from these Senators. Then why did the presumably cosmopolitan Northeastern Senators oppose Wilson so trenchantly?
Cooper's effort at objectivity is evident throughout this book, but I got the sense that it also hamstrung him from making interpretive judgments, at least, as mentioned, from answering why these actors took their stances. I should mention that the one arching reason for the Fight was partisanship. Cooper explains the Fight through this lens, and there certainly is good evidence that suggests this to be true. But I think he could have done more too.
I will review this book more fully after I read it again. It hardly needs saying that this book is, as John Thompson has written, the authoritative account of the League Fight.
Also recommended: The Warrior and the Priest (John Cooper's dual biography of Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt), Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Progressivism (Arthur Link's important volume in the New American Nation Series), Woodrow Wilson: Revolution War and Peace, by Arthur Link. These are all important books about Wilson and the Progressive era.

