Product Description

One of our most esteemed writers and critics paints a deeply insightful portrait of the greatest political mastermind of a century

Our twenty-eighth president was, says Louis Auchincloss, "the greatest idealist who ever occupied the White House." And who better than Auchincloss, with his penchant for quirky personalities and fascination with fin-de-sicle society, to explore this complex persona?

Woodrow Wilson sheds new light on Wilson's upbringing and career, from the grim determination that enabled him to overcome dyslexia to the skillful dance of isolationism and intervention in World War I to the intransigence that--despite his most cherished vision--caused the Senate's rejection of the League of Nations. Here, from the dynamic figure whose ringing speeches hypnotized vast crowds to the gentle voice reading poetry aloud and the comic star of family skits and charades to the rising academic and president of Princeton who made the giant leap into politics are all the triumphs and final tragic irony of this flawed apostle of world peace.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #829482 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-20
• Released on: 2000-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This new biography of our 28th president is pithy and intelligent; it is also hurried. As with other titles in the Penguin Lives series, the match up of author and subject is inspired. Auchincloss, the highbrow novelist and biographer of such bluebloods as Edith Wharton and Henry James, is perfectly suited to chronicle the exploits of the most academic and idealistic man ever to have lived in the White House. In 18 breathless pages, Auchincloss covers Wilson's life from birth to his first executive office--president of Princeton University. It was at Princeton that Wilson caught the eye of Democratic Party bosses, who saw in the bookish professor a man they believed they could manipulate. They were wrong. As a political candidate, Wilson proved to be fiercely independent as well as a master orator. His commanding presence got him elected governor of New Jersey and then, after a fortuitous split in the Republican Party, president of the U.S. Auchincloss does a fine job of detailing the successes and failures of the Wilson administration. His only real misstep is a crude resort to pop psychology; Auchincloss invents something very close to a split personality for the president and makes constant reference throughout to the "two Woodrow Wilsons." That is only a minor flaw, however, in what is otherwise an engaging, informative introduction to one of our greatest leaders. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The "Penguin Lives" series matches its subjects with eminent writers whose short biographies are meant to be read in a sitting or two. Larry McMurtry's Crazy Horse (LJ 11/15/98) opened the series, and in two future volumes, Bobbie Ann Mason will address Elvis Presley and Mary Gordon, Joan of Arc. In this book, Auchincloss, the novelist and historian best known for his many works about New York's turn-of-the-century upper class, portrays President Woodrow Wilson. His book is really an extended character sketch, often based upon the interpretations of prior biographers, especially August Hecksher (Woodrow Wilson). Auchincloss visits Wilson's relationships with his two wives, his adviser Colonel House, and his archenemy, Henry Cabot Lodge, while analyzing Wilson's successes and failures at Princeton, as governor of New Jersey, as president, and as world leader. Auchincloss sees Wilson as admirable but flawed, displaying a dual nature that manifested itself in various (usually harmful) ways in his public and private lives. A useful though optional purchase for public libraries and undergraduate collections. [BOMC and History Book Club selections.--Ed.]--Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.
---Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, NH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
Fleet narrative and clear-eyed psychology put our 28th presidents flawed administration (191321) into personal and global perspective. A veteran man of letters, Auchincloss (Collected Stories, 1994, etc.) discriminates between two Woodrow Wilsons (18561924): the cherished father, husband, and friend is trumped by the Presbyterian scion flexing a divine mandate to implement the peoples will according to his own. Wives Ellen Axson (died 1914) and Edith Galt (married 1915) kept Wilsons favor by making adulation of him their lifes work, whereas faithful secretary Joseph Tumulty and second personality Edward House fell from grace, Auchincloss contends, as a consequence of Wilsons conviction that disagreement equaled personal hostility. Perhaps such an attitude should not be too surprising in a man who once declared, Remember that God ordained that I should be the next president. Auchincloss analyzes brave accomplishments: quashing boss rule, New Freedom from monopolies, establishing child-labor laws, erecting the Federal Reserve system, and, alas, establishing an income tax. But again and again Wilsons all-or-nothing dualism rendered compromise impossibleuntil compromise became unavoidable and he had to capitulate wholesale. Auchincloss is a fair-minded critic, but even he sees Wilson misjudging the Great Wars threat: campaigning for a second term in1916, Wilson proclaimed America too proud to fight in a mechanical slaughterbut by 1917 he had to declare war regardless. Auchincloss also deplores Wilsons insistence on attaching his utopian League of Nations scheme to a punitive Treaty of Versailles that he must have known no Republican Congress would ratify. Indeed, the national tour to win public backing for the treaty induced the stroke that clipped Wilsons career. One still blinks at the bizarre aftermath dramatized here: only a cursory inquiry was made by Congress into the sick mans fitness to govern, and for months Wilsons wife was his sole link to all government emissaries. No wonder his last word was Edith. Its keen characters shrewdly quoted, this taut, fair presentation leaves the reader entertained by an informed storyteller, and informed by an entertaining historian. (Book-of-the-Month Club/History Book Club selection)-- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable introduction and overview
Louis Auchincloss provides an interesting introduction and overview of Wilson's personality and presidency. He touches on the major issues Wilson faced as President of Princton University as well as President of the US and shows how Wilson's intransigence was evident from early on. Auchincloss has reviewed the more recent literature as well, and provides some interesting information as Wilson's health. As a lawyer, Auchincloss also provides interesting analysis of the evidence on various issues still in dispute (was Wilson really signing those documents after he had a stroke and his wife wouldn't let anyone see him?). Finally, he produces a nice little portrait of Wilson's nemesis, Henry Cabot Lodge, as well. I doubt that any real student of the Wilson Presidency could learn much in a volume that barely exceeds 100 pages, but for others who wouldn't mind spending a couple of hours learning something about Wilson and his presidency, it serves its purpose admirably.

Shallow and opinionated essay on Wilson
To begin with, this is really a biographical essay, not a complete biography of Woodrow Wilson in any sense of that word, even discounting the shortness of the book. (In fact, it is only 128 pages long--not 176 pages, as Amazon's listing indicates.) Auchincloss presents at best the highlights of Wilson's life, with hardly any insight or analysis. The essay would have had more merit if published in a larger volume on Wilson or his times; standing alone, it is of questionable merit.

In fact, I cannot imagine what possessed the publisher to select this author or to issue the book after they received it in draft. Auchincloss is primarily a novelist and a man of letters and quite obviously lacks the credentials to write a biography of a major political leader; his product is extremely superficial.

In light of this, his decision to devote an entire chapter--12 pages of digression from the Wilson life story--to Henry Cabot Lodge, Wilson's nemesis at the end of his political career--seems highly questionable. (Had the biography of Wilson itself been more complete, this might have been justifiable.) It would have been better to include more detail on Wilson's two wives--especially his second wife, who essentially took over the Presidency after his major stroke.

The book is replete with the author's opinions of how Wilson should or should not have behaved, with little or no justification for these positions. An example: In discussing American intervention in Mexico prior to World War I, Auchincloss characterizes Mexican leaders Carranza and Pancho Villa as "not too much better" than President Huerta--for whom Wilson showed "moral disapproval"--and in fact notes that Villa was "worse." No rationale whatsoever is given for these comparisons. He notes that "Wilson probably handled a messy situation as well as could be expected," but does not explain why.

Fortunately, there are numerous good biographies of Woodrow Wilson available. It seems difficult to believe that the author really consulted many of them.

Woodrow Wilson
In Woodrow Wilson, Louis Auchincloss provides a useful, albeit brief account of our 28th President. The book touches on the highlights, both good and bad, of Wilson's life, and gives the reader insight into the complexity of Wilson's mind.

Readers of Woodrow Wilson will find a man of enormous intellect who viewed himself as somehow ordained by God to lead the world into a higher level of peace and harmony, but who also battled with arrogance that did not allow him to accept gracious defeat. As a history professor he was well liked by students, but as university president he was beset by strife involving administrative decisions. He appealed to Democrats who wished to cleanse the party of William Jennings Bryan's influence, and accepted the nomination for Governor of New Jersey accordingly. He even adopted a Populist position to appeal to the masses. When the Republican Party divided in 1912, he was assured the Presidency. In that office he was forced to balance personal convictions and political realities that culminated over the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. This ultimately proved to be Wilson's demise.

Auchincloss' portrait explores many of these complexities, but at times appears to gloss them over. The rivalry between Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge oddly is detailed from Lodge's perspective, but the author does not particularize how Wilson reciprocated. Auchincloss does not describe in depth the differences between Lodge's snobbish Harvard arrogance, Theodore Roosevelt's heroic jingoism of a bygone era, and Wilson's self-righteous purveyance of his own world order, and how each affected the others as well as the world around them. Auchincloss also has difficulty in describing Germany in World War One in that it was fighting a war of delaying defeat by 1916 and not turning the tide towards victory.

In the end, however, readers will find Auchincloss' work useful and poignant. He inserts comparisons to future Presidents in an amusing way while discussing the merits of Wilson's administration. Woodrow Wilson may not be a definitive work but, due in part to its brevity, should be considered appropriate reading for High School level history courses.