The moralist
Subtitle: Woodrow Wilson and the world he made
By: Patricia O'Toole
Edition: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 636
ISBN-13: 9780743298094; 9780743298100
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Politics and government; Presidents; Moral and ethical aspects; Biography; Foreign relations
Other titles: Woodrow Wilson and the world he made
Description: "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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Son of the South; title: When a man comes to himself; title: Ascent; title: Against all odds; title: A new freedom; title: A president begins; title: Lines of accommodation; title: Our detached and distant situation; title: Moral force; title: A psychological moment; title: Departures; title: The general wreck; title: At sea; title: Moonshine; title: Strict accountability; title: Haven; title: Dodging trouble; title: The world is on fire; title: Stumbling in the dark; title: The mystic influence of the stars and stripes; title: By a whisker; title: Verge of war; title: Decision; title: The associate; title: The right men; title: One white-hot mass instinct; title: Over here, over there; title: So many problems per diem; title: Defiance; title: Final triumph; title: Storm warning; title: The fog of peace; title: Settling the accounts; title: Stroking the cat the wrong way; title: Paralyzed; title: Altogether an unfortunate mess; title: Breaking the heart of the world; title: Best of the second-raters; title: Swimming upstream; title: Epilogue.