Welcome to Litsy!

Acclaimed author Patricia O�Toole�s �superb� (The New York Times) account of Woodrow Wilson, one of the most high-minded, consequential, and controversial US presidents. A �gripping� (USA TODAY) biography, The Moralist is �an essential contribution to presidential history� (Booklist, starred review). �In graceful prose and deep scholarship, Patricia O�Toole casts new light on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson� (Star Tribune, Minneapolis). The Moralist shows how Wilson was a progressive who enjoyed unprecedented success in leveling the economic playing field, but he was behind the times on racial equality and women�s suffrage. As a Southern boy during the Civil War, he knew the ravages of war, and as president he refused to lead the country into World War I until he was convinced that Germany posed a direct threat to the United States. Once committed, he was an admirable commander-in-chief, yet he also presided over the harshest suppression of political dissent in American history. After the war Wilson became the world�s most ardent champion of liberal internationalism�a democratic new world order committed to peace, collective security, and free trade. With Wilson�s leadership, the governments at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 founded the League of Nations, a federation of the world�s democracies. The creation of the League, Wilson�s last great triumph, was quickly followed by two crushing blows: a paralyzing stroke and the rejection of the treaty that would have allowed the United States to join the League. Ultimately, Wilson�s liberal internationalism was revived by Franklin D. Roosevelt and it has shaped American foreign relations�for better and worse�ever since. A cautionary tale about the perils of moral vanity and American overreach in foreign affairs, The Moralist �does full justice to Wilson�s complexities� (The Wall Street Journal).