December 28 - Happy Birthday, Woodrow Wilson

Posted on December 28, 2018

Woodrow Wilson was one of the better presidents in the United States; the scholar-survey rankings in Wikipedia put him in the upper quartile in almost every case - and the two that rank him lower than that actually ranked him #11 - which today would (barely) put him in the upper upper quartile but didn't when those particular surveys were done.

So, how did Wilson score so well?

He flaunted the wishes of the "party bosses" of his political party (Democrats) in order to pass progressive laws; he established new economic regulations to help make America more stable and fair; he tried to establish a worldwide organization to foster peace and international cooperation.

Here are a few good and bad things about Wilson:

Hooray!

Woodrow Wilson was the first president with a PhD. His doctorate was in Political Science. He was a professor at Princeton University before he was Governor of New Jersey and, later, President of the U.S.






 Boo!

Wilson (who was born in the South) was very racist. He believed in segregation and allowed his cabinet to expand segregation within the federal government.

Hooray!

Wilson's attempt to create a League of Nations won him a Nobel Peace Prize...

Boo!

...but the League of Nations was too weak to be effective and didn't result in an enormous outbreak of peace.

Hooray!

Wilson tried to keep the U.S. out of the war, but then he stood up against German aggression when Germany urged Mexico to go to war with the United States in order to distract from Europe, and when Germany kept attacking American ships with their U-Boats (submarines).



Boo!

The Sedition Act cut into free speech rights during times of war.






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