This full-scale biography—the first in thirty years—traces with sympathy but penetrating objectivity Wilson's meteoric career.

A president of Princeton University, he ran successfully for the New Jersey governorship. Two years later Wilson was in the White House. His domestic accomplishments were followed by his achievement as war leader in the first of this century's general conflicts. He defined the terms on which World War I ended, and as a spokesman for humankind received unprecedented adulation.

Then the public mood darkened. Wilson's errors of judgment, abetted by failing health, collapsed his hopes for a liberal peace. Yet today, with the revival of collective security and international law as valid concepts, Wilson's prophetic ideals acquire fresh significance.