Thank you, Simon & Schuster, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, by Christopher Cox.
The book concentrates on two areas of Woodrow Wilson’s life: his opposition to women voting and his terrible record on racial issues.
Even as president of Princeton, Wilson showed that he didn’t see anything wrong with slavery. He said, “Slavery itself was not so dark a thing as it was painted:, the slaves “were happy and well care for” and “were little worse off” for it. He even opposed abolition, since that just “invade[d] the privileges of self-government.” As a professor at Princeton, he claimed that black were better off under slavery than they were as free. His views on the 14th Amendment were identical to the opponents of the amendment at the time of ratification. But, the 15th Amendment, granting blacks the right to vote (at least on paper) was the one that he found the most offensive.
Wilson’s time as president, when he had the power to implement his views, was even worse. A study of civil service records during Wilson’s presidency showed demotions that allowed
“white supremacists in the Democratic Party to institutionalize segregation” and there was “segregation of the entire federal civil service under President Woodrow Wilson.”
Wilson’s views on both women’s suffrage and rights were also repulsive. As a presidential candidate, one friend, who was also the editor of the New York Evening Post, thought Wilson would rather lose the election than support the issue. And, as a candidate, he supported only one right for women: “the right of women to bear children.” In his first term in the White House, his party, following his leadership, defeated attempts at a constitutional amendment.
It was only when Wilson decided to get remarried late in his first term that he made any effort to move on the issue. He thought that would “lessen political reaction to his second marriage.” But, even then, all he would do was support individual states being able to amend their constitutions to allow women to vote: a measure that would be far less effective than a constitutional amendment. It was until the amendment was on the brink of being approved in the House, in a razor-thin vote, that Wilson supported it, and even then, just barely. He did nothing to help it pass in the House and when it went to the Senate, he did nothing there either until he made one speech, appearing on the floor of the Senate, very late in the process.
By the time that the amendment had passed the Senate and was sent to the states. Wilson was too single-focused on getting the Treaty of Versailles approved that he had no interest in the amendment. And, eventually, after his stroke, he was president in name only.
Just like the Wilson administration had a terrible record in accepting dissenting opinions against World War I, many pro-suffrage protestors were being arrested under his watch. People were arrested just for carrying signs in front of the White House. In the fall of 1917, when pro-suffrage protestors were arrested, they were being threatened in prison. One prison warden, heard descriptions of anti-Wilson protests and told the prisoners, “You must not speak against the President. You know you will be thrashed if you say anything more about the President. And don’t forget you’re on Government property and may be arrested for treason if it happens again.”
The book did an excellent job of looking at providing background coverage of what was happening, both at the time and in history, on racial issues and women’s suffrage.
Prior to Wilson’s presidency, the book focused more on Wilson’s racial attitudes than on suffrage. Once he took office, suffrage was what dominated the book. I would liked to have hade more on his racist presidential policies. It was already a very long book (39 chapters) so what’s a little longer. But, that criticism doesn’t prevent the book from receiving an A+ and being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
After finishing the book, I preordered the audioversion, which I will be able to listen to when it, as well as the printed/ebook versions are released on November 5.
This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on July 24, 2024.
