person1856–1924

Woodrow Wilson

Disciplines:

Summary

28th President of the United States (1913–21) — President of Princeton — who led the US into WWI, proposed the Fourteen Points, created the League of Nations (which the US Senate rejected), enacted the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission, and re-segregated the federal government.

Core Contribution

Creates the Wilsonian liberal internationalist framework for US foreign policy — Wilson's argument (that the US has a special mission to spread democracy and that a rules-based international order can prevent war) became the dominant ideology of US foreign policy for a century, surviving every revision and critique.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Re-segregated the federal civil service after it had been integrated for decades — the most consequential reversal of racial progress by a president who simultaneously presented himself as a progressive reformer; the contradiction was resolved by his belief in racial hierarchy
Suffered a severe stroke in October 1919 while touring the country for the League and governed (or failed to govern) for 17 months while largely incapacitated — the cover-up of his incapacity was the most significant failure of constitutional continuity between the 25th Amendment era and the present

Notable Works & Achievements

The State

Congressional Government

Constitutional Government in the United States

War Messages and Fourteen Points Speeches

Historical Influences

Edmund Burke Liberal Protestant theology

Intellectual Lineage

Staunton, Virginia Princeton, Johns Hopkins Princeton New Jersey Governor

Contemporaries & Peers

Theodore Roosevelt Henry Cabot Lodge Georges Clemenceau

Minds Influenced

US foreign policy

Intellectual Posterity

League of Nations Wilsonianism Federal Reserve Act Fourteen Points

Discussing

Woodrow Wilson

Ask anything about Woodrow Wilson — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

person1856–1924

Woodrow Wilson

Disciplines:

politics

princeton

us presidency

political philosophy/internationalism

Summary

Core Contribution

Key Spikes & Highlights

Re-segregated the federal civil service after it had been integrated for decades — the most consequential reversal of racial progress by a president who simultaneously presented himself as a progressive reformer; the contradiction was resolved by his belief in racial hierarchy
Suffered a severe stroke in October 1919 while touring the country for the League and governed (or failed to govern) for 17 months while largely incapacitated — the cover-up of his incapacity was the most significant failure of constitutional continuity between the 25th Amendment era and the present

Notable Works & Achievements

The State

Congressional Government

Constitutional Government in the United States

War Messages and Fourteen Points Speeches

Historical Influences

Edmund Burke Liberal Protestant theology

Intellectual Lineage

Staunton, Virginia Princeton, Johns Hopkins Princeton New Jersey Governor

Contemporaries & Peers

Theodore Roosevelt Henry Cabot Lodge Georges Clemenceau

Minds Influenced

US foreign policy

Intellectual Posterity

League of Nations Wilsonianism Federal Reserve Act Fourteen Points

Discussing

Woodrow Wilson

Ask anything about Woodrow Wilson — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.