Woodrow Wilson a century on

While Wilson's defence and foreign policy shift moved the United States into superpower status and therefore earned him a degree of greatness, his government was also responsible for a number of regressions on the domestic front. For instance, Wilson the political scientist knew that the question of women's rights to vote would be "settled in the affirmative" no matter what he did but dragged his feet until he married Edith Galt, probably the most powerful first lady in US history.

Secondly, Wilson's government segregated the federal workplace thereby initiating the Jim Crow policies that would last until the Johnson administration. The Wilson cabinet was composed of men from below the Mason-Dixon line with memories of slavery, the civil war and reconstruction. A lot of them had well-known anti-Semitic, anti-Negro and anti-Indian attitudes but, as Berg writes, Wilson felt most at home with this crowd. By instituting segregation, erecting a standing army an entering a war an ocean away, Wilson basically reversed the wishes of the founding fathers, the very reasons for the civil war and therefore reduced the freedoms of American citizens.

Finally, Wilson's decision to stay out of the League of Nations which more or less allowed European imperial ambitions to cause another world war was, as his critics observed at the time, an act of limited courage. His "war to end all wars", it turned out, only ended one world war.

Having reacted relatively in the negative to Berg's "great man" portrayal of Woodrow Wilson, I owe it to the prospective readers that the book is well written. The Wilson Berg presents is thoughtful and empathetic: a moral crusader for inequality in the United States, self-determination and peace around the world. As a student of political science, I do not recognise that Wilson and I choose to disagree with Berg.

There is another Wilson Berg reveals and I like him immensely. He was physically frail throughout his life but he went on to maintain a great deal of interest in sport. He even coached a football (Gridiron) team. He was a caring son, a loving husband and a nurturing father. That Wilson is easy to love.