Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency

by W. Barksdale Maynard

Before Woodrow Wilson became president of the United States, he spent 25 years at Princeton University, first as an undergraduate, then professor, and finally as president. His experiences at the helm of Princeton—where he enjoyed four productive years followed by four years of wrangling and intense acrimony—reveal much about the kind of man he was and how he earned a reputation as a fearless crusader. This engrossing book focuses on how Wilson’s Princeton years influenced the ideas and worldview he later applied in politics. His career in the White House, W. Barksdale Maynard shows, repeated with uncanny precision his Princeton experiences.   The book recounts how Wilson’s inspired period of building, expansion, and intellectual fervor at Princeton deteriorated into one of the most famous academic disputes in American history. His battle to abolish elitist eating clubs and establish a more egalitarian system culminated in his defeat and dismissal, and the ruthlessness of his tactics alienated even longtime friends. So extreme was his behavior, some historians have wondered whether he suffered a stroke. Maynard sheds new light on this question, on Wilson’s temper, and on other aspects of his strengths and shortcomings. The book provides an unprecedented inside view of a hard-fighting president—a man who tried first to remake a university and then to remake the world.

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twenty things I learned about President Woodrow Wilson:
1) He was born in Georgia in 1856
2) He was Presbyterian
3) He was a professor at Princeton University
4) He was the president of Princeton University
5) He was governor of New Jersey
6) He was an "anglophile" (He loved everything British)
7) He was extremely stubborn and hard-headed.
8) When he believed himself to be right, he could never be dissuaded
9) He did not know the meaning of "compromise."
10) He had a difficult time forgiving people. In fact, he held grudges all his adult life.
11) He was an incredibly gifted man, both intellectually and oratorically.
12) He was admired greatly by students and faculty alike, although because of his inability to compromise or "get along" with other people, he often fell from grace.
13) He had an emotional affair with a woman for many, many years. Never sexual.
14) He had to put up with exaggerated accusations of sexual immorality because of his platonic, but loving, relationship with this other woman during his campaign for president.
15) He experienced the death of first wife while he was president.
16) He married his second wife while he still held the office of President of the USA.
17) He had some incredible financial backers all his adult life; people who never lost faith in him.
18) He suffered from high blood pressure most of his adult life, which eventually contributed to his death, dying at age 67.
19) He considered himself a failure for two reasons: A. His inability to institute "Quads" at Princeton and, B. His inability to get the USA to become a member of the League of Nations
20) He died in 1923.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

First congratulations to the author for making one hundred year old college politics interesting. Woodrow Wilson spent most of his productive life at Princeton, hence, most of the book is about Princeton University. The presidential years are glossed over perhaps because a wealth of material already exists on the subject. His final sad years are not. Well worth a read.