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More than a century after his death, Woodrow Wilson's influence on American politics remains strong while his contradictions loom larger than ever. With panoramic sweep, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn examines his life and times, focusing especially on the 28th president's opposition to the movements for racial equality and women's voting rights. The Wilson who emerges is a man superbly unsuited to the moment when, as he ascended to the presidency in 1912, the struggle for women's voting rights in America reached the tipping point.
The first southern Democrat to occupy the White House since the Civil War era brought with him to Washington like-minded men who quickly set to work segregating the federal government. Wilson's own sympathy for Jim Crow and states' rights animated his decades-long hostility to the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which promised universal suffrage backed by federal enforcement. Women demonstrating for voting rights found themselves demonized in government propaganda, beaten and starved while illegally imprisoned, and even confined to the insane asylum.
When, in the twilight of his second term, two-thirds of Congress stood on the threshold of passing the Anthony Amendment, Wilson abruptly switched his position. But in sympathy with like-minded southern Democrats, he endorsed a plan to rewrite the Anthony Amendment to protect Jim Crow restrictions on the voting rights of Black women. The heroes responsible for the eventual success of the unadulterated Anthony Amendment are brought to life by Christopher Cox, an author steeped in the ways of Washington and political power. This is a "Pulitzer Prize–worthy history" (The Washington Examiner) that puts you at the center of one of the greatest advances in the history of American democracy.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
November 5, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781668010808
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781668010808
- File size: 57035 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from October 1, 2024
A reappraisal of our 28th president. Historian, lawyer, and former Congressman Cox writes that Wilson was the first Southern Democrat to occupy the White House since Andrew Johnson. Scholars have long considered him a giant among presidents for his progressive reforms and leadership in World War I. They have not ignored his flaws, emphasizing the censorship, suppression of civil rights, and persecution of war opponents. Cox will have none of that. Sticking to the historical record but keeping Wilson's achievements in the background, he concentrates on his subject's beliefs, morality, and intellect--and paints a dismal picture. Born in 1856 in Virginia to a father who enthusiastically supported secession, Wilson believed to his death in the righteousness of the Confederate cause, the horror of Reconstruction, and the inferiority of the Negro race, to whom slavery was a positive benefit. He also proclaimed that universal suffrage was "the foundation of every evil in this country." Only when the 19th Amendment was about to pass Congress overwhelmingly did he express lukewarm support. Perhaps equally distressing is Cox's low opinion of Wilson's political talents and learning. As a president of Princeton and an author of college textbooks, Wilson is regarded as among our most scholarly presidents, but Cox quotes historians who give Wilson's acumen low marks, and his praise of "Aryan" culture and institutions makes uncomfortable reading. Even traditional historians agree that the defeat of America's League of Nations entry was entirely Wilson's own doing. When the Senate disobeyed his order to approve the League bill without modifications, he urged Democrats to vote no, and enough senators changed their votes to defeat it. Well researched, insightful, and dismaying.COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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October 15, 2024
Assessments of Woodrow Wilson tend to focus on his role leading America through WWI and its aftermath and in signing the Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations. From the vantage point of the twenty-first century, Wilson's presidency looks much different. Southern born and bred, Wilson couldn't shake his views of formerly enslaved people or the role of women in society and politics. Wilson despised Reconstruction and the Republican party that dominated Congress, passing the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to establish the rights of the newly emancipated. As president of Princeton University, he refused to admit Black students, even as the other Ivy League schools did, and as the nation's president, he oversaw the resegregation of government offices, declaring it in Black peoples' best interests. He displayed a near lack of civility to the ever-growing ranks of women who regularly marched for suffrage on the White House. Cox even finds evidence that Wilson's doctoral exams were virtually rigged for him by friends. This biography will further stimulate reevaluation of Wilson's legacy.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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