Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow

(1856–1924) twenty-eighth U.S. president; born in Staunton, Va. Son of a Presbyterian minister, he studied at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, gaining his Ph.D. with the first of his major books on American government, Congressional Government (1885). After teaching at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan (1885–90), he moved to Princeton, whose president he became in 1902 and where his reforms had a wide impact on American university education. In 1910, Wilson entered politics as a Democrat and was elected governor of New Jersey (1911–13); his liberal reforms brought him national attention and the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 (although only on the 46th ballot). With the Republicans split between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson won by a landslide. He effectively continued a reformist program he called the "New Freedom"; his initiatives included lowering tariffs, a graduated income tax, the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the eight-hour workday, and landmark laws against child labor. On the international front he was less successful, especially in his attempts to intervene in Mexican politics. He won reelection in 1916 with a pledge to keep America out of the European war, but found the U.S.A. inexorably drawn in; declaring war on Germany in April 1917, he proposed a peace in the form of the "Fourteen Points," which brought Germany to the bargaining table in late 1918. Much of the world now hailed him as virtually a savior, but at the Versailles Peace Conference he was confronted by the compromises of Realpolitik. On his return to America his dream of a League of Nations—largely due to his refusal to compromise—went down to defeat in Congress as his health collapsed. He spent his last months in office incapacitated (his wife served as his intermediary for many decisions) and in 1921 retired to seclusion. Undeniably one of the most intelligent and high-minded presidents the U.S. has had, he was also rigid in certain ways and unresolved in others so that when it came to the climax of his life's work—America's entry into a League of Nations—he was unable to make the appropriate moves.

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References in periodicals archive

Although Secretary of State Lansing and others advised taking a strong stand and perhaps even severing diplomatic relations, President Wilson chose to delay action in the hope that the German government would voluntarily apologize.

America's grand entry into the Great War: despite the fact that the British interfered with U.S. shipping early in WWI and refused to abide by international rules of naval warfare, America sided with them against Germany

"This proposal will prove to be inadequate and will have to be revisited, probably when the next wave of public scandals arrives," declared President Wilson.

Advocacy

* Ask why President Wilson might have favored self-determination for the former Ottoman territories and why Europeans took the opposite view.

How the Middle East got that way: the seeds of much of the conflict in the Mideast today were planted by Britain and its Allies after World War I, when they carved up the remains of the Ottoman Empire

What was President Wilson's stated reason for the U.S.

Cause and effect: America's entry into World War I

In a series of German notes, President Wilson facilitated communication between the United States and Germany regarding the Fourteen Points program.

Armistice 1918

The opposition of critical interest groups enabled President Wilson to avoid entanglement with the NHR issue.

The paradoxes of national health reform during the Wilson era

President Wilson's crucial support for the women's suffrage amendment is noted, but his support-given kicking and screaming against his will-was the culmination of more than a half century of agitation by the women's movement.

A People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America

During World War I President Wilson asked him first to head the Commission for Relief in Belgium, and then to become Food Administrator for the United States.

Hoover, Herbert (Clark) (1874-1964)

The members finally overcame their partisan differences and adopted the plan forged by President Wilson, Congressman Carter Glass, and Senator Robert Owen, which became the Federal Reserve Act--an act "to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes."

The establishment and evolution of the Federal Reserve Board: 1913-23

Again an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1900 and 1908, he was named secretary of state by President Wilson, but he resigned in 1915, when he felt that the president 's policies might involve the U.S.

Bryan, William Jennings

Woodrow Wilson

Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow