Beginning with the assassination of McKinley and ending with the defeat of the League of Nations by the United States Senate, the twenty-year period covered by John Dos Passos in this lucid and fascinating narrative changed the whole destiny of America. This is the story of the war we won and the peace we lost, told with a clear historical perspective and a warm interest in the remarkable people … people who guided the United States through one of the most crucial periods.
Foremost in the cast of characters is Woodrow Wilson, the shy, brilliant, revered, and misunderstood “schoolmaster,” whose administration was a complex of apparent contradictions. Wilson had almost no interest in foreign affairs when he was first elected, yet later, in proposing the League of Nations, he was to play a major role in international politics. During his first summer in office, without any previous experience in banking, he pushed through the Federal Reserve Bank Act, perhaps his most lasting contribution. Reelected in 1916 on the rallying cry, “He kept us out of war,” he shortly found himself and his country inextricably involved in the European conflict.
John Dos Passos has brilliantly coordinated the political, the military, and the economic themes so that the story line never falters. First published in 1962, Mr. Wilson’s War is one of the great books and an addition of major stature to any reader’s library
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provides a more thorough understanding of the pre and WWI times
I was disappointed. DosPassos’ style is cumbersome: he habitually combines words that are usually hyphenated or separate, and he writes run-on sentences frequently. His omissions of historical events are numerous, he nicknames some of the major persons (House is always the “confidential colonel”) and he never mentions the role of the influenza …
Dos Passos is a superb writer. This brief history of Woodrow Wilson before and during WW 1 demonstrates Wilson’s crippling inability to accept opposing points of view as anything but a personal attack.
Wilson’s idealism also badly served him in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Just want to remind that it is not for purchase in Amazon as digital book
I like history but this was too thick with details to hold my interest. Got bogged down and have set it aside.
Excellent look into the US involvement in the First World War. Good descriptions of the main actors and their interactions. Not very flattering to Woodrow Wilson, which as it should be. Dos Passos’ portrait of Wilson fits with major historians. Well written.
A good look at the life and legacy of Woodrow Wilson (who I knew little about until reading this book). The book is well written and interesting.
Excellent new info about this historic era!
Dos Passos’s USA trilogy was one of my favorite books as a teen. I never went beyond it, because the word back then (over 50 years ago) was that his talent was in decline and that he had turned from radical to reactionary. I wanted to see if his political stance affected his history, and the price was right.
While the book isn’t up to USA, it …
So here’s the thing: 200 pages in, the only war Mr. Wilson had fought was against Villa, in Mexico. And I think he was still fighting it when I finally called time. I can’t say I wasn’t warned. The title clearly states that this book chronicles events from 1901 onward, but I am guilty of not taking the title at face value. Thus far, Woodrow …
This book covers not only WW1, it’s also a biography of Wilson (and, to a lesser extent, the major figures in his life) from his birth until the end of The Great War. There are also mini-bios of all the big players. Parallel to these stories is a overview of the nations involved as well as military strategies and soldiers’-eye-views. For the large …
This book gave a good review of the Wilson years and the years before, but it was not that interesting to read.
Not very illuminating about Wilson’s character, missed many aspects of his presidency and life
Really well written. A part of history I didnt’ know much about. Highly recommended.