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Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
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PRESIDENTIAL SERIES > WOODROW WILSON: A BIOGRAPHY - BIBLIOGRAPHY (SPOILER THREAD)

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message 1: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (last edited Mar 24, 2013 04:40PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 24, 2013 04:39PM

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
This thread is a "spoiler thread" and is a bibliography thread which identifies many of the books which were referenced or used as primary documents during the writing of Woodrow Wilson: A Biography.

Please feel free to add properly cited books (book covers, author's photo, and author's links). Add a review or a few words why this book is important to the subject matter, etc.; but remember there is no self promotion, etc.

Any self promotion links or posts are removed.

Woodrow Wilson A Biography by John Milton Cooper Jr. by John Milton Cooper Jr.


message 2: by Peter (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 24, 2013 04:56PM

Peter Flom Wilson is discussed (briefly but rather positively) in Rayburn by D.B. Hardeman by D.B. Hardeman. This also serves as a reminder of just how *long* Rayburn was in office (he was first elected in 1913 and served until his death in 1961).


message 3: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 24, 2013 05:02PM

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
Remarkable reign. Thank you Peter.


message 4: by Tomerobber (new) - rated it 5 stars
Mar 24, 2013 06:54PM

Tomerobber | 334 comments Peter wrote: "Wilson is discussed (briefly but rather positively) in Rayburn by D.B. Hardeman by D.B. Hardeman. This also serves as a reminder of just how *long* Rayburn was in office (he was first elected i..."

Hi Peter,
Glad you posted this headsup here . . . I've been reading vol. 1 of

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #1) by Robert A. Caro by Robert A. Caro Robert A. Caro
and Rayburn figures prominently in it and I wanted to read more about him . . . this looks like a good reference.


message 5: by Peter (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 25, 2013 04:13AM

Peter Flom The Rayburn book is pretty good. The writing isn't stellar, but it covers his life and politics. A *very* different man from LBJ - making their long friendship more remarkable.

Rayburn by D.B. Hardeman by D.B. Hardeman.


message 6: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 25, 2013 06:17AM

Bryan Craig Ok folks, lol, let's turn our attention back to Wilson.

The standard documentary source on Wilson are the multi-volume papers. Princeton finished the whole series, the last being volume 68. Amazing:

More:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/522...

The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 1 by Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson


message 7: by Tomerobber (new) - rated it 5 stars
Mar 25, 2013 01:12PM

Tomerobber | 334 comments Bryan wrote: "Ok folks, lol, let's turn our attention back to Wilson.

The standard documentary source on Wilson are the multi-volume papers. Princeton finished the whole series, the last being volume 68. Amaz..."

Unfortunately, Bryan the $110.00 price tag prohibits me from any hope of ever perusing this offering . . . unless my local library has a copy avail. with the Link+ program . . .


message 8: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Mar 25, 2013 01:18PM

Bryan Craig Yeah, these documentary edited volumes are really geared to college libraries and larger public libraries. Some scholars have them.

One day they may be online.


message 14: by Bryan (last edited Apr 10, 2013 10:51AM) (new) - rated it 4 stars
Apr 10, 2013 10:50AM

Bryan Craig Chapter Four

(no image)The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, the Square Deal: 1901-1903 by Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt


message 15: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Apr 10, 2013 10:52AM

Bryan Craig Chapter Five

The Making of Princeton University From Woodrow Wilson to the Present by James L. Axtell James L. Axtell


message 16: by Tomerobber (last edited Apr 13, 2013 09:38AM) (new) - rated it 5 stars
Apr 13, 2013 08:55AM

Tomerobber | 334 comments I used this to get some add. background info on Wilson's second marriage, Chap 1 is devoted to him . . .
Hidden Power Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History by Kati Marton by Kati Marton no photo

and I found this
AN INTERACTIVE BIOGRAPHY OF WOODROW WILSON by Charles River Editors
(no cover - not in GR database) offered as a freebie that incorporates sound bytes and video clips . . . but alas needs editing . . . still provided add. Info I'd not seen or heard before.


message 17: by Bryan (last edited Apr 14, 2013 10:22AM) (new) - rated it 4 stars
Apr 14, 2013 10:20AM

Bryan Craig Thanks Tomerobber.


message 18: by David (new) - rated it 5 stars
Apr 15, 2013 02:21PM

David Arnaudo (davidlloydarnaudo) | 30 comments I've read the Wilson book, its a good read.


message 21: by Tomerobber (new) - rated it 5 stars
Apr 22, 2013 05:58PM

Tomerobber | 334 comments I just finished listening to the audio book of this offering . . . it deals a lot with Wilson's failure to get involved in WWI and the surrounding reasons for that for that decision . . . a great read! At times the countries involved reminded me of the Three Stooges . . . the mentality was unbelievable.

The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara W. Tuchman by Barbara W. Tuchman Barbara W. Tuchman


message 22: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Apr 22, 2013 06:00PM

Bryan Craig A classic


message 38: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Jul 01, 2013 07:46AM

Bryan Craig Chapter Twenty Three

The White House The First Two Hundred Years by Frank Freidel by Frank Freidel (no photo)

Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition The Treaty Fight in Perspective by Lloyd E. Ambrosius by Lloyd E. Ambrosius (no photo)

Edith and Woodrow The Wilson White House by Phyllis Lee Levin by Phyllis Lee Levin (no photo)

The Collected Writings Of John Maynard Keynes by John Maynard Keynes by John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes

(no image) The Bridge to France by Edward N. Hurley (no photo)


message 40: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Jul 01, 2013 07:51AM

Bryan Craig Chapter Twenty Five

(no image) My Memoir by Edith Bolling Wilson (no photo)

Woodrow Wilson The Caricature, the Myth and the Man by Edith Gittings Reid by Edith Gittings Reid (no photo)


message 41: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (new) - rated it 4 stars
Aug 03, 2013 10:56PM

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
I just came across this book and review which may be of interest to those reading the Persico book and also those who finished up on the recent Wilson discussion:



Josephus Daniels: His Life and Times’ by Lee A. Craig
By John Lehman

Next time you go to a coffee shop to order a cup of joe, you are honoring the 41st secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels (1862-1948). A devout evangelical Christian, he imposed prohibition on all naval ships and shore stations with his infamous “General Order 99” of June 1, 1914. Among other things, it directed that the officer’s wine mess be replaced with coffee urns on all naval ships, whereupon naval officers derisively referred thereafter to a “cup of Josephus,” which soon became a cup of Joe. He also banned condoms from Navy ships and campaigned to keep prostitutes at least five miles away from any naval base.

Daniels was a strong Navy secretary and had many accomplishments, including the rapid buildup of the fleet and its readiness prior to World War I, enabling the Navy’s excellent wartime performance. He brought Thomas Edison in to advise on keeping the Navy at the cutting edge of technology and mentored his own assistant secretary, Franklin Roosevelt, for eight years.

All this and much more we learn from historian Lee A. Craig’s exhaustively researched and highly readable biography of a complicated and interesting man. Born in coastal North Carolina during the Civil War to a mother from a slave-owning family and a father who was a shipbuilder and Union supporter, Daniels made his fortune in the newspaper business, owning three by the time he was 21. Newspapers then were even more political than now, as they could not survive without the patronage of government printing contracts. Daniels demonstrated that his coverage and editorials could make or break candidates. Through that influence he became the most powerful politician in the South.

His power enabled him to deliver the divided Democratic convention of 1912 to his friend Woodrow Wilson. Daniels was rewarded with the most coveted Cabinet post, secretary of the Navy, serving for the eight years of Wilson’s tenure. At first a fervent pacifist, as war approached Daniels became a strong and effective advocate for a big and fully funded Navy. Despite a reluctant admiralty, he admitted women into the Navy and Marine Corps during the war, with more than 11,000 serving.

After the armistice, when Wilson took his Fourteen Points to Paris to negotiate the peace treaties, Daniels joined him and urged that he take a less doctrinaire attitude toward German guilt and reparations, warning that Wilson was dictating a peace to end all peace. Despite their closeness, Wilson ignored that counsel.

Craig’s narrative of the intrigues and issues of the Paris peace process is outstanding, ordering the many complex and often arcane political and personal conflicts into a clear picture for the reader. His judgment of Wilson is quite harsh: “As it turned out the administration’s peace plan could not have been a bigger failure. Wilson deserves a good bit of the blame. . . . Wilson’s inability to compromise when convinced of his own righteousness . . . cost him what he saw as his greatest victory.” The Senate rejected the treaty. After Daniels left office, he publicly denounced the treaty that ultimately went into effect as imposing a “Carthaginian Peace” on Germany.

Daniels did, however, persuade Wilson to support a true two-ocean Navy for the postwar period that made it the equal of any navy in the world. He also persuaded Wilson to back a pivot toward the Pacific that, by the time Daniels left office in 1921, resulted in 10 dreadnoughts being stationed there.

After the Republicans swept the 1920 election, Daniels returned to Raleigh to resume running his newspapers and exercising his still-formidable political power. Despite his progressivism, he, like Wilson, was deeply opposed to racial equality. Daniels indeed had been instrumental in bringing about the disenfranchisement of blacks throughout the old South. In the interwar period, he was a powerful supporter of the Ku Klux Klan, though according to Craig never a member.

Craig has made a major contribution to the understanding of the period by illuminating how Daniels and the white supremacy movement led by the old slave-owning and agriculture-based interests used prohibition laws, first in North Carolina in 1908 and later with ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919, to break the political power of Republicans and blacks in the South. It was the Republicans and their Wall Street financiers who were building the new urban economy of textile, furniture, paper and other manufacturing that drew blacks from the land to the cities. Republicans also owned the distilleries, hotels and saloons. By putting these out of business, the Democrats could greatly reduce the Republicans’ presence and political influence.

Very few prohibition supporters in the South were teetotalers like Daniels. (Illegal stills had always been plentiful in the South, so prohibition there did not have the bite that it had in the North.) Thus did Jim Crow go hand in hand with prohibition. As Craig sums up, Daniels “led North Carolina’s white supremacist movement and, more than any other individual, was responsible for the disenfranchisement of the state’s African American citizens.”

Between the wars, Daniels remained a political kingmaker. Resisting efforts to draft him to run for president, he was instrumental in delivering the South to his protege FDR in 1932. As a reward, Roosevelt sent him to Mexico as ambassador, where he served until 1941. Returning to Raleigh and to writing his memoirs, he died on Jan. 15, 1948.

While the early chapters will be of interest mostly to students of North Carolina politics, the bulk of the book should be fascinating to the general reader. In Craig’s hands, the story of a very complex man living in the tumult of war and depression becomes a clear and intriguing page-turner.

About the Author:
John Lehman was secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and a member of the 9/11 Commission.

Source: The Washington Post

Josephus Daniels His Life and Times by Lee Craig by Lee Craig (no photo)


message 42: by Bryan (new) - rated it 4 stars
Aug 04, 2013 04:24AM

Bryan Craig Nice, thanks Bentley.


message 43: by Bentley, Group Founder, Leader, Chief (last edited Aug 08, 2013 07:38PM) (new) - rated it 4 stars
Aug 08, 2013 07:38PM

Bentley | 44291 comments Mod
I didn't think anybody saw it - glad you did - mighty interesting considering the WW read as well as the Persico one.

Roosevelt's Centurions FDR & the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II by Joseph E. Persico by Joseph E. Persico Joseph E. Persico


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Books mentioned in this topic

Roosevelt's Centurions: FDR & the Commanders He Led to Victory in World War II (other topics)
Josephus Daniels: His Life and Times (other topics)
Woodrow Wilson: The Caricature, the Myth and the Man (other topics)
My Memoir (other topics)
The Road to Normalcy: The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1920 (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic

Joseph E. Persico (other topics)
Lee A. Craig (other topics)
Edith Bolling Wilson (other topics)
Edith Gittings Reid (other topics)
Wesley Marvin Bagby (other topics)
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