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Wilson by A. Scott Berg is a biography of President Woodrow Wilson, America’s 28th President. Mr. Berg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and biographer

I was looking forward to reading this book because I have read contradictory things about Woodrow Wilson. He was either a savior or a criminal, a polished politician or a stumbling professor, a crook or an honest man, racist or a product of the time. The truth is, as always, somewhere in the middle.

Wilson by A. Scott Berg follows Wilson from his birth in Virginia to his meteoric rise as president of Princeton University, New Jersey. Somehow running and winning the New Jersey gubernatorial race, and a short two years later became Chief Executive of the United States and thrust into World War I.

Wilson, it seems to be, was the first modern President. A man who ran the office as a Prime Minister with reform-oriented goals. His domestic legislative successes are very impressive, and his commitment to global peace after winning World War I is admirable.

I have to admit that I thought Woodrow Wilson, the person, was boring and certainly a racist despite his lofty peaceful ambitions. His life, however, was anything but, I’ve read about the election of 1812 in both Teddy Roosevelt‘s and William H. Taft biographies but I thought this book gave me a better understanding of what happened.

On October 1919 President Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. This started what, I think, is one of the greatest political cover-ups in United States history where the President, who had problems handling basic tasks, actually finished his term with the help of his wife and physician.

President Wilson had an enormous impact on the United States and the world. This book makes it clear what an important part he played even though I found the political analysis a bit short. I thought Mr. Berg masterfully managed to show us the world from Wilson’s point of view, but I never really got to know, or understand, the man or his legacy. ( )

I have little love for the southern culture that formed Wilson ... but he was quite a leader. Author cleans up / explains a lot of the racist attitudes but hard to avoid the damage his actions/inactions/policy did. His administration really launched Jim Crowe. Also insane how he could leave the US for so long and be incapacitated for so long as president. Neither would happen today. ( )

I didn't know much about Wilson prior to reading this biography and had assumed the most interesting part (for me, anyway) would be the years during World War I. However, I was surprised to find myself completely engrossed in Wilson's earlier life, his college years, and his time at Princeton as a student, professor, and president. The World War I section and Wilson's negotiation of the treaty and fight for the League of Nations was interesting, but not as engrossing as his earlier years. Berg does such a fine job of presenting a rounded human being and showing how his good traits and not to good traits both helped and hindered him as a politician. ( )

Fair notice: this is the kind of biography in which one learns more about the architecture of each house in which our 28th President resided than about his writings or political thought. Similarly unexplained is how Wilson managed his impressive legislative victories as governor of New Jersey and than president. Berg's treatment verges at times on hagiography and deprives Wilson's political opponents of any motive other than personal pique. Nonetheless this is a fairly smooth read. Before choosing Berg's Wilson over, say John Milton Cooper's fine The Warrior and the Priest, readers should have a sense of what they want to learn from a political biography. ( )

It covers a lot of ground particulary history and upbringing and political issues he tackled but at end he wore out. ( )