Woodrow Wilson is not a name that we mention
very much these days and I had little interest in reading about him until I
attended the last ALA Conference that met in Chicago in 2107. I visited the Library of Congress booth while
they were asking trivia questions. The
question was, “What was the first book printed in what was then called British
North America?” I knew the answer, The
Bay Psalm Book printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1640. My prize was an autographed copy of, Wilson
by A. Scott Berg (New York, Putnam, 2013). This article is not meant to be a
review of the book or his life, but a few of my reactions to his life and times
of Wilson and the treatment Berg gave his subject. Reading the book was low on my priority, until
I was forced to spend many long hours at home because of the stay at home
order. The book is 818 pages and is slow
reading. It is not slow because it is poorly
written, but because it made me think and want to look up more about what was
being discussed. I finally finished the book yesterday.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born December 28, 1856 in Staunton,
Virginia and died February 3, 1924 in Washington, D.C. He went to high school in Augusta, Georgia where
his classmates included future Supreme Court justice Joseph Rucker Lamar,
Wilson’s closet friend and next door neighbor and future ambassador Pleasant A.
Stovall. Other students became a Columbia Law School dean, a congressman, and a
newspaper owner. He did his undergraduate work at Princeton University (then
called New Jersey College) and in 1883 entered Johns Hopkins University where he
in 1885 his published the book, Congressional Government: A Study in
American Politics, and earned in his Ph.D in 1886. He was on the way
to becoming a well-known professor. The future
president was more learned in the history of American politics and law than any
other president or member of Congress has ever been. In June 1902 he was appointed
president of Princeton University. At
Princeton he proved he was both an able educator and administrator. He gained a
national reputation and was nominated and elected to be governor of New Jersey.
This academic experience gave Wilson a broad view of the
world and results of decisions. Later in
1919 when he was negotiating the Treaty of Versailles he saw the forest while
the Europeans saw the trees. Henry Cabot
Lodge, a Republican congressman and senator from Massachusetts was his political
nemesis. However, their first encounter
was in 1879 when Lodge[1] was a junior editor for International
Review and accepted for publication an article by Wilson, “Cabinet Government
in the United States.” Lodge when he was
a congressman, was against almost every idea and legislation that President Wilson
proposed. Wilson was a Democrat; Lodge a
Republican. Berg does not tell us very much about what Lodge believed in or
what was his political agenda other than Lodge was against Wilson.
The first biography of Wilson was written by Josephus Daniels, The
Life of Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924(Chicago, 1924.) This book was
written with the cooperation of Wilson’s widow, Edith. Daniels worked with Wilson as Secretary of
Navy and as part of the team at the Treaty of Versailles.
Wilson’s story is sad. His first
wife died of kidney disease while living the White House. His greatest accomplishments should have been
the League of Nations and the war to end all wars. Even though Wilson won the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize
Congress never authorized U.S. membership in the League of Nations. During his tenure women got the vote, but prohibition
was passed. The country was struggling with the rights of Negroes. Segregation, even in government was widespread.
The country had labor unrest. Wilson
made the Federal government more powerful and established income taxes. After he left office, the next president,
Warren G. Harding, did his best to undo many of the positive programs that
Wilson started. He had a stroke and the last years in office his was physically
unable to perform most the presidential duties.
I was amazed at some of the details Berg recounts.
Berg tells us what Wilson was thinking on a given day. I know that Wilson
kept a diary and notes, but the level of detail is greater than I know about
myself and what was in my head. Berg was writing more than 90 years after the events.
The diaries are available in Library of Congress’s digital collection, but they
are in shorthand and I couldn’t read them.
Many places Berg says what the Wilsons did in a day to the detail of
what they ate for a meal. Sometimes
after dinner he played solitaire. He also liked to watch movies and had a projector
in the White House. For a former professor I find it odd that Berg never reports
that Wilson sat down with a good book. When
they moved out of the White House, they bought a house on S Street in
Washington and one of requirements was that it needed to be big enough for his
8000 volume book collection. With a collection
that big I wonder why there is no mention of obtaining books, reading, or
caring for the collection while he was in the White House.
When he was in good health, he would play a round of 9 hole golf in the
morning after breakfast and before work.
Many times, his doctor said he needed a rest from work, and he took multiweek
vacations. During the vacations to
recover his health he rode his bike and played golf. I realize that most of his
health problems had very few treatments, but how does an academic turn off his
mind and play 1700 rounds of golf during his presidency? When I discussed this
with my friends, they said being president in an era of slower communication
was not as taxing as today. Wilson could
afford to play golf and take a ride in a car for pleasure.
Who knows how different the world would be today if France, Italy, and
the other European nations would have written a peace treaty that was less punitive
and more peace building for Germany. Would
the hyperinflation in Germany of the 1920’s have ever happened? Would Wilson’s ideas of world peace have prevented
some wars? Would a stronger role of the US in the world stage have made this a
better world?
Every book needs to offer thanks to those who helped the author. Berg thanks the librarians at Library of
Congress, the Newark Public Library, The Princeton University Library and other
libraries. But his story of how he got interested
in Wilson is most endearing. In 1965
Berg’s mother gave him a book about Wilson, titled, When
the Cheering Stopped by Gene Smith.
Berg thanked his editor, Phyllis Grann.
When he first met with her, she asked how he got interested in
Wilson. Berg answered because of the
book his mother gave him. Grann said that
in 1964 she was a secretary at Putnam who wanted to be an editor. Her boss gave
her the manuscript of When the Cheering Stopped saying, “Let’s see what you can do with
this?” This was the first book that she edited. Never underestimate the power of a book. The gift in 1965 turned into a 48 year
journey to get Berg’s book into my hands.
[1]
Lodge earned his law degree (1874) and PhD (1876) from Harvard University. He was
in favor of limits on immigration and in favor of entering World War I on the
side of the Allied Powers. He was against joining the League of Nations;
however, his objections were taken into account in the charter of the United
Nations. His grandson, Henry Cabot
Lodge, Jr. was also a politician who represented Massachusetts, ran for vice president
with Richard Nixon, and was appointed to several ambassador posts.
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