Reviews
"Cooper's much-anticipated biography finally gives Wilson his due. The preeminent living historian of Wilson and his era, Cooper has studied the man an his times for decades…he now presents us with his magnum opus. The book is deeply, indeed exhaustively researched, and beautifully, often movingly narrated. It is far and away the best biography of the 28th president we have, and as such it is unlikely to be surpassed." -Boston Globe "Cooper's monumental new biography seeks to revive Wilson for the 21st century-not simply to narrate a presidential life, but to explain why he deserves our national esteem….An admiring and engaging work of presidential revisionism…. A powerful, deeply researched and highly readable case for keeping Wilson in the top ranks of American presidents." -New York Times Book Review "Wilson comes alive in Cooper's insightful and important biography…. It's easy to see why Wilson captures many imaginations. We still want to believe what Wilson believed: that there is a common right, that we can find it, and that it matters most of all." -Newsweek "Cooper clearly admires his subject but is not blind to his faults. His is a nuanced portrait of the 28th president…. It also offers lessons for another intellectual professor-turned-president, who combines principle with pragmatism. He, Wilson, and Teddy Roosevelt are the only presidents to receive a Nobel Peace Prize while still in office." -Cleveland Plain Dealer "A noted Woodrow Wilson expert comprehensively examines the life and career of America's 28th president…. Cooper exhibits complete command of his materials, a sure knowledge of the man and a nuanced understanding of a presidency almost Shakespearean in its dimensions." -Kirkus(Starred review) "[O]ur leading Wilson authority…offers a comprehensive, felicitously written biography aimed at scholars but accessible to general readers, too…. He admires Wilson for his faith, learning, eloquence, and executive skill while conceding that he had to learn foreign policy on the job-yet established America as an international player." -Library Journal(Starred review) "In this spellbinding new biography, sure to take its place as the definitive one volume life, John Milton Cooper rescues Woodrow Wilson from historical caricature. He gives us the Progressive champion whose New Freedom transformed the role of government and offered later presidents-FDR and LBJ come to mind-a textbook example of presidential persuasion and legislative mastery. Behind Wilsonian idealism is Wilson the idealist-a man of soaring vision and tragic blind spots, furtive charm and unbridled passions, global ambitions and unyielding enmities. Crafted with a scholarship and eloquence worthy of its subject, Cooper's Wilson is intensely moving, sometimes infuriating, and surprisingly contemporary. Above all, it lives." -Richard Norton Smith, author ofPatriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation "None of our most consequential presidents have been as elusive as Woodrow Wilson. But in this wise and often moving work, John Milton Cooper, Jr. takes his full measure-as scholar and orator, personality and politician, visionary and statesman. It is a triumph of American biography, both deeply learned and gracefully crafted." -Michael Kazin, author ofA Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan "John Cooper'sWilsonis the triumphant product of a dedicated life's work. Cooper has earlier written, with insight and authority,
