First in peace

A full-blooded portrait of the 28th president as scholar, progressive leader, and man

November 29, 2009|Erez Manela, Globe Correspondent

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In his altered mental state - at times he seemed “to verge on mental instability, if not insanity’’ - Wilson actively buried any hope of a compromise on the League while ignoring all other affairs of state even as the economy plunged into recession, racial violence spread in the cities, and political repression reached fever pitch. This was by far the worst crisis of presidential incapacity in American history. It was a tragedy for Wilson himself, but even more so for the nation, and for the world.

Still, Wilson’s most lasting legacy, his articulation of a vision for a liberal international order with the United States at its core, has remained both influential and controversial. In our present condition, as Americans continue to puzzle over the terms of their engagement with a fast-changing world, we would do well to think deeply about the ideas, challenges, and failures of Woodrow Wilson.

Erez Manela, professor of history at Harvard, is the author of “The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism.’’