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WOODROW WILSON


Picture of Woodrow Wilson
[Library of Congress]

1856-1924

28th President (1913-1921)

Biographical Data
Religious Views
Quotations
References, Links, & Further Reading



Education: College of New Jersey (now Princeton), Johns Hopkins

Occupation: college professor and administrator

Political Affiliation: Democrat


Religious Affiliation: Presbyterian

Summary of Religious Views:

Wilson, whose father was a theologian, had an upbringing steeped in religion, and remained deeply religious throughout his life. He was a frequent church-goer, and read the Bible regularly, especially toward the end of his life.

Views on Religion & Politics:

Wilson's religious views were the driving force in his political career, informing his quest for world peace.

Quotations:

"[The Bible is] a book which reveals men unto themselves, not as creatures in bondage, not as men under human authority, not as those bidden to take counsel and command of any human source. It reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom he has put over him in authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker. Whenever a man sees this vision he stands up a free man, whatever may be the government under which he lives, if he sees beyond the circumstances of his own life." -- speech on the tercentenary of the King James Bible, Denver, 7 May 1911

"My life would not be worth living if it were not for the driving power of religion, for faith, pure and simple. I have seen all my life the arguments against it without ever having been moved by them . . . never for a moment have I had one doubt about my religious beliefs. There are people who believe only so far as they understand -- that seems to me presumptuous and sets their understanding as the standard of the universe . . . I am sorry for such people." -- letter to Nancy Toy, 1915

"It does not become America that within her borders, where every man is free to follow the dictates of his conscience, men should raise the cry of church against church. To do that is to strike at the very spirit and heart of America." -- speech, 4 November 1915

References, Links, & Further Reading: Books, Articles, Links


Books

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Works by Woodrow Wilson

ed. by Arthur S. Link, et al., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 69 vols., Princeton Univ. Press, 1966-1994
Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, Houghton Mifflin, 1885; reprint
The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics: A Sketch of Institutional History and Administration, D.C. Heath, 1889; reprint
Division and Reunion, 1829-1889, Longmans, Harper, 1902; reprint
A History of the American People, 5 vols., Harper, 1902; 10 vols., Harper, 1917-1918; Vol. I Vol. II Vol. III Vol. IV Vol. V Vol. VI Vol. VII Vol. VIII Vol. IX
Constitutional Government in the United States, Columbia Univ. Press, 1908; reprint

Biographies

Lloyd Ambrosius, Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective, Cambridge, 1987
Ray Stannard Baker, Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, 8 vols., Doubleday, Page, 1927-1939
Mark E. Benbow, Woodrow Wilson’s Wars: The Making of America’s First Modern Commander-in-Chief Naval Inst. Press, 2022
A. Scott Berg, Wilson, Putnam, 2013
John Morton Blum, Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality, Little, Brown, 1956
H. W. Brands, Woodrow Wilson, Times Books, 2003
Eugene C. Brooks, Woodrow Wilson As President, Row, Peterson, 1916; reprint
Frederick Calhoun, Uses of Force and Wilsonian Foreign Policy, Kent State Univ. Press, 1993
Kendrick A. Clements, Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman, Twayne, 1987
Kendrick A. Clements, The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, Univ. Press of Kansas, 1992
John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, Harvard Univ. Press, 1983
ed. by John Milton Cooper and Charles Neu, The Wilson Era: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Link, Harlan Davidson, 1991
Christopher Cox, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, Simon & Schuster, 2024
G. R. Coyne, Woodrow Wilson: British Perspectives, 1912-21, Macmillian, 1992
Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era: Years of Peace 1910-1917, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1944
Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era: Years of War 1917-1923, Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1946
John A. Garraty, Woodrow Wilson: A Great Life in Brief, Knopf, 1956
Cary T. Grayson, Woodrow Wilson: An Intimate Memoir, Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1960
Robert H. Ferrell, Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917-1921, Harper & Row, 1985
August Hecksher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, Scribners, 1991
David F. Houston, Eight Years With Wilson's Cabinet, 1913 to 1920, With a Personal Estimate of the President, Doubleday, Page, 1926
Thomas J. Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993
ed. by Earl Latham, The Philosophy and Policies of Woodrow Wilson, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1975
N. Gordon Levin, Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution, Oxford Univ. Press, 1970
Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson, 5 vols., Princeton Univ. Press, 1947-1965
Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson: A Brief Biography, World, 1963
Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917, Harper and Bros., 1954
Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace, Harlan Davidson, 1979
Arthur S. Link, The Higher Realism of Woodrow Wilson and Other Essays, Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1971
John M. Mulder, Woodrow Wilson: The Years of Preparation, Princeton Univ. Press, 1978
J. W. Schulte Nordholt, Woodrow Wilson: A Life for World Peace, Univ. of California Press, 1991
Patricia O’Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made, Simon & Schuster, 2018
Robert Quirk, An Affair Of Honor: Woodrow Wilson And The Occupation Of Veracruz, Univ. of Kentucky Press, 1962
Robert M. Saunders, In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior, Greenwood Press, 1998
Georg Schild, Between Ideology and Realpolitik: Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Revolution, 1917-1921, Greenwood, 1995
Gene Smith, When the Cheering Stopped: The Last Years of Woodrow Wilson, Morrow, 1964
Richard Striner, Woodrow Wilson and World War I: A Burden Too Great to Bear, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014
J.A. Thompson, Woodrow Wilson, Longman, 2002
Niels Aage Thorsen, Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson, 1875-1910, Princeton Univ. Press, 1988
Joseph Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him, Doubleday, Page, 1921; reprint
Arthur Walworth, Woodrow Wilson, 2 vols., Houghton Mifflin, 1958; 3d ed., W.W. Norton, 1978

Articles

Articles by Woodrow Wilson
Kathleen L. Wolgemuth, "Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation," The Journal of Negro HistoryVol. 44, No. 2, April 1959, pp. 158

Links

Works by Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson (American Presidency Project)
Woodrow Wilson: Historic Speeches (Presidential Rhetoric)
First Inaugural Address (AMDOCS)
First Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson (Avalon Project -- Yale Law School)
First Inaugural Address (American Rhetoric)
Second Inaugural Address (AMDOCS)
Second Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson (Avalon Project -- Yale Law School)
Declaration of Neutrality (World War I Document Archive)
First Warning to the Germans (World War I Document Archive)
The First Lusitania Note to Germany (World War I Document Archive)
Protest to Germany (World War I Document Archive)
War Message to Congress (World War I Document Archive)
War Message (American Rhetoric)
President Wilson's Address to Congress, Analyzing German and Austrian Peace Utterances (World War I Document Archive)
Fourteen Points Speech (World War I Document Archive)
The Fourteen Points (American Rhetoric)
Monopoly, or Opportunity? (AMDOCS)
Woodrow Wilson -- Democratic principles (Vincent Voice Library -- Michigan State University Libraries)

Biographical Sites

Woodrow Wilson (POTUS)
Woodrow Wilson (White House)
Woodrow Wilson (American President)
Woodrow Wilson (USA Presidents)
Woodrow Wilson's Administration (Hypertext on American History)
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) (EncyclopediaVirginia)
Thomas Woodrow Wilson - Biographical (The Nobel Foundation)
Life Portrait of Woodrow Wilson (C-SPAN)
Gov. Thomas Woodrow Wilson (National Governors Association)
About Woodrow Wilson (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars)
Woodrow Wilson in Georgia (New Georgia Enncyclopedia)
President Wilson Suffers a Stroke, 1919 (Eye Witness)
Woodrow Wilson Birthplace & Museum
Woodrow Wilson (Medical History of the Presidents of the United States)

Religious Views

Woodrow Wilson from The Religious Beliefs Of Our Presidents, by Franklin Steiner (Internet Infidels)



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