Power without victory : Woodrow Wilson and the American internationalist experiment / Trygve Throntveit.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Throntveit, Trygve, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.

Wilson, Woodrow.

League of Nations.

United States--Foreign relations--1913-1921.

United States.

International relations.

Diplomatic relations.

Physical Description:

v, 404 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Summary:

For decades, Woodrow Wilson has been remembered as either a paternalistic liberal or reactionary conservative at home and as a naïve idealist or cynical imperialist abroad. Historians' harsh judgments of Wilson are understandable. He won two elections by promising a deliberative democratic process that would ensure justice and political empowerment for all. Yet under Wilson, Jim Crow persisted, interventions in Latin America increased, and a humiliating peace settlement was forced upon Germany. A generation after Wilson, stark inequalities and injustices still plagued the nation, myopic nationalism hindered its responsible engagement in world affairs, and a second vastly destructive global conflict threatened the survival of democracy worldwide leaving some Americans today to wonder what, exactly, the buildings and programs bearing his name are commemorating. Trygve Throntveit argues that there is more to the story of Wilson than these sad truths. Throntveit makes the case that Wilson was not a "Wilsonian," as that term has come to be understood, but a principled pragmatist in the tradition of William James. He did not seek to stamp American-style democracy on other peoples, but to enable the gradual development of a genuinely global system of governance that would maintain justice and facilitate peaceful change a goal that, contrary to historical tradition, the American people embraced.

Contents:

The ethical republic

Common counsel

A certain blindness

Trials of neutrality

Trojan horsemanship

Provincials no longer

The will to believe

The fable of the Fourteen points

A living thing is born

Conclusion: power without victory and the right to believe.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226459875

022645987X

9780226459905

022645990X

OCLC:

958781131