The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson by Kendrick A. Clements
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What makes this time period so interesting to me is that it happens during a threshold is that America’s coming of age was happening just now. The nation had done much of the basic industrialization and infrastructure investments, and it had experienced both the boom of industry with its horrors of industry. The result was, much of the population was facing a question as to how the worker and the industrial capitalists would get along? What would be the role of the government, of laws, of self determination? What was to be the sense of how labor was to be arranged in America? And then, along comes one of the most intellectual (and therefore idealistic) presidents, ready to reshape America for the benefit of the common man, worker and farmer — he comes ready on the cusp to provide a gradual outlet for prosperity and change, instead of pure exploitation — and then, when he is just getting warmed up, world war breaks out and interrupts his steady mission to use the government as a mere regulatory instrument.. for the betterment of the common man’s condition.
Whether Wilson’s ideals would have worked in keeping America prosperity going remains a mystery, as World War I interrupted. What WWI provided further was an opportunity for Wilson to enact his ideals of freedom, prosperity, democracy, this time on the world stage in the form of International Law, Treaties and the League of Nations. But this too was interrupted by Wilson’s health problems, first relating to getting the Treaty Signed, then getting the American Congress to support that treaty. Ultimately this last stage of stress proved too much. He collapsed amid the strain and had a stroke.
The stroke had a strangely ironic effect on Wilson. As Clement tells it, the stroke destroyed his psychological capacity to split details and make concessions — do what he did best before the War, to create bipartisanship, and alliances — so that he became a parody of himself. Far too stubborn to compromise, unable to follow complex thought, but still liberal, progressive in his ideals. Being uncompromising, he fits the form of being radical and thus loses the very things he worked so hard to gain.
To me this presidency is about an intelligent, caring man who tried to put what he thought were the highest ideals of humanity in action inscribed in the law, first, at the national level, then at the international level. But this isn’t the entire story.
Wilson only really recognized the subjectivities of people like him. White, educated. He did seem to believe that everyone could strive for the best. But because of this color-blind-ness he also did not recognize the differences in perception, opinion and institutional racism that skewed the lifeworld of other peoples. This is where Wilson strangely fails, in protecting the rights of American-Americans and keeping with the interests of Latin America, as he always took a heavy hand… as he thought what was not only best for himself but for everyone. Note, one of his major flaws is being too controlling, not clearly delegating responsibility…
If anything, this is a good example of how certain ideals and worldviews make well intentioned people blind, unable to comprehend what they are doing, or how life could be different for others. Indeed, Clements takes pain to show that Wilson was not open to criticism once his decisions were made. Wilson was stubborn, idealistic and incredibly uncritical of his own attitudes. Wilson may have been very intelligent, very well intentioned but he was also unable to see anyone else’s point of view, nor was he apt to change his own core views.
In this strange way, where he got so close to achieving his humanistic ideals, he was also thwarted from those ideals by the very from that got him so close. Because of the infinity spelled out in actualizing your will, this infinity makes Wilson a tragic figure… since heros only achieve infinite positive life for all in fairy tails. In this tragic story, Wilson’s body was unable to bear the stress his mind saw so clearly as important to becoming. In this sense, Wilson also failed to be self aware/self critical of how he treated his physical person. Does that make him a fool? Or a hero?
Either way, his personal agenda aside, perhaps because of his stroke, Wilson was unable to dismantle the war machine his administration put together for WWI. This war machine didn’t create an “unholy coalition” where business and government work together exclusively to make profit, but he did put regulating bodies in place that were there to help small businesses/farmers but in the end only enforced the will of larger business on regulating the market place to their advantage. Much of the programs first started by Wilson to help further his ideals ended up setting the stage for their retardation by big business.
In a way, while very competent for his job, Wilson perhaps proved too ambitious for his own good. He over extended himself, and he didn’t allow for enough self criticism in what/how he did what he did… took on too much for himself, as he thought he knew best (even best for other races) and finally, Wilson instead he relied on blind faith that those values he followed were self-justifying.
Hero or fool? Either way, really fascinating.
