Woodrow Wilson, world statesman /

In this critical yet generally sympathetic account, Clements has incorporated recent scholarship; editors at Princeton have granted him access to materials in forthcoming volumes of The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (v.1: CH, Apr '67; v.2: CH, Oct '67; v.11: CH, Feb '72; v.12: CH, Feb '73). The book includes coverage of Wilson's youth, education, academic career, health, and involvement in state politics. Clements also treats Wilson's domestic programs as President, his Latin American and Asian policies, and his role as war leader and peacemaker. Wilson emerges as one deeply committed to the idea of public service and driven by a high-minded yet often inflexible idealism. Deeply ambitious, Wilson possessed remarkable leadership talents, but often overreached himself. The author depicts Wilson as very much the product of his background, his political environment, and his culture. Any failure in state and national governance tended to be failure in the political assumptions of many Progressives. If Wilson failed to speak to racial and ethnic minorities, it was because he was convinced there was a single set of ``American'' ideals and aspirations that he should express. When he erred in foreign policy, he, like most Americans, overestimated what US intervention could accomplish and underestimated the costs. Interesting, informative, insightful, the book includes a chronology and a useful bibliographic essay. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-S.L. Piott, Clarion University of Pennsylvania

A well documented and summarized history in which Clements gives the background for and the moral reasons on which Wilson based his decisions. This easily read and understood book presents Wilson as the first president to hold office once most Americans had become aware of their nation's global reach. Wilson, like those who followed him, struggled to balance the protection of national interests, the rights of other peoples, and the promotion of national ideals in a world being radically transformed by war, revolution, and nationalism. This is a brief but excellent book about the period and about the complicated, far-sighted president who tried to establish the first world government, The League of Nations. Barbara Batty, Port Arthur Independent School District (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.