Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality

Library of American Biography

by John Morton Blum

An analysis of the political career of Woodrow Wilson and the moral and political issues of his era

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Presidents, American History

215 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

John Morton Blum was an American historian, active from the 1950 to 1991. He was a specialist in 20th-century American political history and a senior advisor to Yale officials.

Reviews

[Jonfaith]

But Wilson, walking now with the help of a cane, existed in a demiworld of querulous fantasies.

Obvious now, each day delivers shocks to reality and there’s a growing interest in imagining what potential limits there are for the American presidency. I grabbed this and found it an intriguing survey of a self proclaimed idealist who was often monstrous.

His childhood was marked by a favoring of oratory over erudition. Democracy was about dazzling persuasion not compromise and obligation. He also felt that the American Experiment was failing due to immigration and like many of his time viewed most races to be inferior.

His presidential foreign policy along with his Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan was woefully naive. Thus his dreamed League of Nations was likely doomed regardless. Allied insistence on reparations and Japanese on recognition blurred matters and the Red Scare and Henry Cabot Lodge destroyed what ever chance remained.

I did enjoy this and am considering more books on presidential imagination as I enter a week of holiday.

[Maryk]

After realizing the involved countries expectations of Germany and seeing how demands would be brought to fruition, it is easy to see that Wilson’s goals and his participation in the Treaty of Versailles could never achieve his dream of “peace without victory” because the Treaty of Versailles instituted too many conflicting goals: geographic and financial retribution, German admittance and apology for inflicted moral wrongs upon the world, and also the restoration of Germany to an un-occupied level of economic stability for the purpose of maintaining the balance of power in Europe. The people of Germany were to be punished publicly, stripped of the land they had gained in the war and robbed of any imperial or economic gains as retribution for their part in the war. And yet they were to be expected to “play nice”, suffer humiliation and financial burden, without retaliation, respect, or acknowledgement of any good that they could or would do in their near future. There was no dignified exit for Germany. There was no possibility of “peace without victory”. There were undeniably winners and losers in this war, though essentially everyone who was party to it lost something in the end. Wilson’s goals were undeniably idealistic. The naïve ambitions set forth for achievement were doomed from the onset of their envisionment. Yet despite this, as stated in Blum’s book, “The tragedy was not just Wilson’s, but his times’. There were, as the final scenes unrolled, many actors, none heroes and none really villains unless human frailty is counted villainous. ..Yet, with unflagging courage, embroiled in a situation he was not built to master, he came so close to triumph that his failings nag where those of a lesser man might not be noticed.”(158)The question is now and forever will be at large as to what would have happened had the parties involved been capable of realizing Wilson’s dream of “peace without victory”. But speculation on this matter is futile for the single most important feat achieved by the Treaty of Versailles, despite the best intentions of Wilson, was the assurance that Germany would rise again- in the attempt to take back her dignity and power and to punish the world for its disgrace. This fact makes the conditions of The Treaty of Versailles and its effect on the world the ultimate anti-victory.

[Jadin Land]

This was a book on Woodrow Wilson, his administration, and the League of Nations. It did a good job describing these topics. The second half of the book was mostly on the League of Nations and those involved. Unfortunately, the copy I have was missing pages 130-157. This book is exactly what you would expect.

[Theenemytoad]

I'm sure this book has great information if you're writing your dissertation on Woodrow Wilson, but I found it so boring I couldn't get past page 57. I tried.

[E.H. Nolan]

As a political science student, I read this book for research during my senior thesis. The topic of my thesis was comparing certain presidents, including Wilson, to Plato’s ideals and morals in The Republic. As obvious by the title, this book gave me quite a bit of material.
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While John Morton Blum is obviously a Wilson fan, I can’t really fault him. If you’re going to spend years of your life writing a tribute to a single individual, isn’t it expected to hold a great deal of passion for him? And for that matter, if you’re going to go out and read this book, you’d probably already be a Wilson fan, wouldn’t you? Blum’s bias didn’t really bother me, since I was able to sift through the praise, recognize the facts, and gather material for my research.

This is a very typical political biography. It’s pretty dry and straightforward, so you’d better have a strong love of politics, and President Wilson in particular, if you’re going to chew on this one. The good news is it’s not too long, so it won’t really take you too long to get through.

http://hottoastyrag.weebly.com/woodro...

[Chad]

Despite the bias of the author, I learned a lot about Woodrow Wilson and the history of his time. This book doesn't just cover his presidency, but also his rise to power. The author does a good job of describing the different crisis he faced, both domestically and internationally, and he spends an adequate amount of time describing some of the key players in these crisis. The author's infatuation with Wilson is pretty evident by the fact that even when he tried to show a weakness that Wilson had, Mr. Blum explained how that weakness made him a better person or a better president. The author seemed to have a great deal of disdain for Republicans, but doesn't go into detail as to why. The Republican positions are only mentioned to show how wrong they were, with no sort of argument from the other side to balance. It seems the author fell into Wilson's own trap of thinking that he had now flaws, and that the only reason he was unsuccessful in his objectives was because of the flaws in the world around him.

[Joshua Dew]

A bit dry and erudite at times, it provides some great insight into Wilson's rationale, philosophy, and morality, focusing on their influence in his domestic and foreign policy. Also covers his time as President of Princeton and Governor of New Jersey, positions owed to him by city machine politics. Wilson's devotion to his morality, influenced by Romantic ideas of the past, ultimately failed to mesh with the realities of the industrialized twenty-first century.

[Joshua]

Unbelievable diction and terrific insights regarding Woodrow Wilson's life, presidency, and contributions to America's moral fiber.