Startling Estimate of Wilson

Since the two major American political parties are houses of many mansions which provide bedroom space for just about every variety of philosophy, it may not seem anomalous that two of our highest-ranking Republicans have recently adopted Woodrow Wilson for their very own. A year or more ago Em Bowles Alsop edited a “collective biography” called The Greatness of Woodrow Wilson (Rinehart, $3.95) and who should provide an enthusiastic introduction but Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower! More recently Herbert Hoover, who served under Wilson as Food Administrator in World War I, has set forth The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (McGraw-Hill, $6.00) in terms which cast our World War I President in the role of a hero of Aristotelian tragedy. Hoover sees Wilson as a great and good man who failed because the fates found a way to exploit the chink in his armor.

The Eisenhower commendation of a symposium which presents Wilson all too uncritically is mere platitude: to Eisenhower, Wilson is important because he lives in history as an apostle of “world order” and a “lasting peace.” Hoover’s tribute to Wilson’s life and character, though enigmatic at certain key points, is of an entirely different order. Indeed, the Hoover book amounts to a revaluation; as Hoover assembles his material, it becomes quite apparent that Wilson’s true greatness is largely forgotten in a world which continues to revere him for the wrong things. Curiously enough, a two-volume biography of Wilson by Arthur Walworth—Woodrow Wilson-I: American Prophet and Woodrow Wilson-II: World Prophet (Longmans, $15.00, boxed)—bears Hoover out, though Mr. Walworth is quite unconscious of what he is doing in a work that is as enterprising and unconventional in its tracking down of detail as it is worshipful of the Wilson of orthodox legend.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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Since the two major American political parties are houses of many mansions which provide bedroom space for just about every variety of philosophy, it may not seem anomalous that two of our highest-ranking Republicans have recently adopted Woodrow Wilson for their very own. A year or more ago Em Bowles Alsop edited a “collective biography” called The Greatness of Woodrow Wilson (Rinehart, $3.95) and who should provide an enthusiastic introduction but Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower! More recently Herbert Hoover, who served under Wilson as Food Administrator in World War I, has set forth The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (McGraw-Hill, $6.00) in terms which cast our World War I President in the role of a hero of Aristotelian tragedy. Hoover sees Wilson as a great and good man who failed because the fates found a way to exploit the chink in his armor.

The Eisenhower commendation of a symposium which presents Wilson all too uncritically is mere platitude: to Eisenhower, Wilson is important because he lives in history as an apostle of “world order” and a “lasting peace.” Hoover’s tribute to Wilson’s life and character, though enigmatic at certain key points, is of an entirely different order. Indeed, the Hoover book amounts to a revaluation; as Hoover assembles his material, it becomes quite apparent that Wilson’s true greatness is largely forgotten in a world which continues to revere him for the wrong things. Curiously enough, a two-volume biography of Wilson by Arthur Walworth—Woodrow Wilson-I: American Prophet and Woodrow Wilson-II: World Prophet (Longmans, $15.00, boxed)—bears Hoover out, though Mr. Walworth is quite unconscious of what he is doing in a work that is as enterprising and unconventional in its tracking down of detail as it is worshipful of the Wilson of orthodox legend.