Wilson Hardcover by A. Scott Berg (G.P.Putnam's Sons)

This is one of the best biographies I have ever read, and that includes a lot of books. It is well-written, entertaining and informative. It makes you wish you could hear Wilson speak so as to better understand the spell he apparently cast over his audiences. There is a nice balance of coverage over Wilson's life from youth to the end of his life. He was a fascinating, brilliant man, but I left with the idea I would not have liked him personally, which would not have bothered him in the least as he apparently liked few people as well. He was a product of his times, but was thrust so quickly and oddly into the national political picture. He went from being a rather obscure college professor to the Presidency with remarkable ease and seemingly little effort. Although the author does not bring it out, the parallels to President Obama's leadership style are striking, and the results similar. It's a good read for anyone interested in history of the era or presidencies, and I suggest reading a biography of Henry Cabot Lodge to balance the political views.

One hundred years after his inauguration, Woodrow Wilson still stands as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century, and one of the most enigmatic. And now, after more than a decade of research and writing, Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg has completed Wilson--the most personal and penetrating biography ever written about the 28th President.

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of documents in the Wilson Archives, Berg was the first biographer to gain access to two recently-discovered caches of papers belonging to those close to Wilson. From this material, Berg was able to add countless details--even several unknown events--that fill in missing pieces of Wilson’s character and cast new light on his entire life.


From the scholar-President who ushered the country through its first great world war to the man of intense passion and turbulence , from the idealist determined to make the world “safe for democracy” to the stroke-crippled leader whose incapacity and the subterfuges around it were among the century’s greatest secrets, the result is an intimate portrait written with a particularly contemporary point of view – a book at once magisterial and deeply emotional about the whole of Wilson’s life, accomplishments, and failings. This is not just Wilson the icon – but Wilson the man.