The moralist : Woodrow Wilson and the world he made / Patricia O'Toole.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Toole, Patricia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.

Wilson, Woodrow.

Presidents--United States--Biography.

Presidents.

International relations.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1913-1921.

Politics and government.

United States--Foreign relations--Moral and ethical aspects.

Genre:

Biographies.

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

xviii, 636 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Other Title:

Woodrow Wilson and the world he made

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Summary:

"By the author of acclaimed biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Adams, a penetrating biography of one of the most high-minded, consequential, and controversial US presidents, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). The Moralist is a cautionary tale about the perils of moral vanity and American overreach in foreign affairs."--Provided by publisher.

"President from 1913 to 1921, Wilson set a high bar for himself and the country. No president believed more fervently in the primacy of morality in politics or the 'moral force' of ideas. [This book] measures Wilson by his own standards while recounting his unprecedented success as an economic reformer, his grand vision for a peaceful world order, his moral blind spots (on race, women's suffrage, and free speech in wartime), and a final defeat that was largely self-inflicted. The Moralist is a cautionary tale about moral vanity and the limitations of leadership that strays too far from political realities. But it is also a tale of the enduring power of high ideals. Despite Wilson's missteps, his searching moral questions--about the role of a government in the lives of its people and about the duty of the United States to the larger world--transformed the economy and revolutionized international relations. Wilson's ideas remained at the heart of American political debate for the rest of the twentieth century. The challenges of the twenty-first require many answers that Wilson could not have supplied, but his central moral question--What is the right thing for a government to do?--is as relevant, and as urgent, as ever."--Dust jacket.

Contents:

Son of the South

When a man comes to himself

Ascent

Against all odds

A new freedom

A president begins

Lines of accommodation

Our detached and distant situation

Moral force

A psychological moment

Departures

The general wreck

At sea

Moonshine

Strict accountability

Haven

Dodging trouble

The world is on fire

Stumbling in the dark

The mystic influence of the stars and stripes

By a whisker

Verge of war

Decision

The associate

The right men

One white-hot mass instinct

Over here, over there

So many problems per diem

Defiance

Final triumph

Storm warning

The fog of peace

Settling the accounts

Stroking the cat the wrong way

Paralyzed

Altogether an unfortunate mess

Breaking the heart of the world

Best of the second-raters

Swimming upstream

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780743298094

0743298098

9780743298100

0743298101

OCLC:

989963746