Woodrow Wilson came to political power in the United States at a time when many Americans were troubled by a seeming contradiction between the inherent premises and promises of American life and reality. For, as the nineteenth century gave way to the complexities of the twentieth, government was too often characterized by an ineffectiveness in dealing with international tensions and by an inability to resolve internal stress. To these problems Wilson brought the Christian morality and nineteenth-century liberalism of his Presbyterian background and genteel education. He developed an inspirational faith in the powers of a new morality to lead men to find and correct the maladies of the body politic and, indeed, of the world itself. He led Congress to great achievements and his party to large triumphs. And while his inflexibility caused him to fail in his hopes for his greatest project, the League of Nations, his failure was for that time only, as history has since made abundantly clear. -- from Book Jacket.

What is the role of ethics in American foreign policy? The Trump Administration has elevated this from a theoretical question to front-page news. Should ethics even play a role, or should we only focus on defending our material interests? In Do Morals Matter? Joseph S. Nye provides a concise yet penetrating analysis of how modern American presidents have-and have not-incorporated ethics into their foreign policy. Nye examines each presidency during theAmerican era post-1945 and scores them on the success they achieved in implementing an ethical foreign policy. Alongside this, he evaluates their leadership qualities, explaining which approaches work and which ones do not.

Acclaimed author Patricia O’Toole’s “superb” (The New York Times) account of Woodrow Wilson, one of the most high-minded, consequential, and controversial US presidents. A “gripping” (USA TODAY) biography, The Moralist is “an essential contribution to presidential history” (Booklist, starred review). “In graceful prose and deep scholarship, Patricia O’Toole casts new light on the presidency of Woodrow Wilson” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis). The Moralist shows how Wilson was a progressive who enjoyed unprecedented success in leveling the economic playing field, but he was behind the times on racial equality and women’s suffrage. As a Southern boy during the Civil War, he knew the ravages of war, and as president he refused to lead the country into World War I until he was convinced that Germany posed a direct threat to the United States. Once committed, he was an admirable commander-in-chief, yet he also presided over the harshest suppression of political dissent in American history. After the war Wilson became the world’s most ardent champion of liberal internationalism—a democratic new world order committed to peace, collective security, and free trade. With Wilson’s leadership, the governments at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 founded the League of Nations, a federation of the world’s democracies. The creation of the League, Wilson’s last great triumph, was quickly followed by two crushing blows: a paralyzing stroke and the rejection of the treaty that would have allowed the United States to join the League. Ultimately, Wilson’s liberal internationalism was revived by Franklin D. Roosevelt and it has shaped American foreign relations—for better and worse—ever since. A cautionary tale about the perils of moral vanity and American overreach in foreign affairs, The Moralist “does full justice to Wilson’s complexities” (The Wall Street Journal).

Marking the 97th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson's landmark The Study of Administration, this major work focuses on Wilson, his times, and his widely discussed politics-administration di-chotomy. The 21 distinguished contributors-brought together after a nationwide search for the finest writ-ing on this topic-weave a unique text that offers a single-source reference investigating the study as well as the practice of public administration ... presents a cohesive, original ac count of the subject by concentrating on Wilson's contributions-an approach superior to that of the ordinary text ... and spotlights key current issues and challenges resulting from obser vations made during Wilson's era. Politics and Administration provides such an exceptional perspective of this field that it is sure to attain rapid recognition as the ideal textbook for graduate-level introductory public admin-istration or management, political science, and American history courses. What is more, ongo-ing examinations of public administration make this volume a requisite reference for political scientists, historians, public administrators, politicians, and sociologists.

Woodrow Wilson came to political power in the United States at a time when many Americans were troubled by a seeming contradiction between the inherent premises and promises of American life and reality. For, as the nineteenth century gave way to the complexities of the twentieth, government was too often characterized by an ineffectiveness in dealing with international tensions and by an inability to resolve internal stress. To these problems Wilson brought the Christian morality and nineteenth-century liberalism of his Presbyterian background and genteel education. He developed an inspirational faith in the powers of a new morality to lead men to find and correct the maladies of the body politic and, indeed, of the world itself. He led Congress to great achievements and his party to large triumphs. And while his inflexibility caused him to fail in his hopes for his greatest project, the League of Nations, his failure was for that time only, as history has since made abundantly clear. -- from Book Jacket.

While supporting the cosmopolitan pursuit of a world that respects all rights and interests, James D. Ingram believes political theorists have, in their approach to this project, compromised its egalitarian and emancipatory principles. Focusing on recent debates without losing sight of cosmopolitanism's ancient and Enlightenment roots, Ingram confronts the philosophical difficulties of defending universal ideals and the implications for ethics and political theory. In morality as in politics, theorists have generally focused first on discovering universal values and second on their implementation. Ingram argues that only by prioritizing the development and articulation of universal values through political action in the fight for freedom and equality can theorists do justice to these efforts and cosmopolitanism's universal vocation. Only by proceeding from the local to the global, from the bottom up rather than from the top down, on the basis of political practice rather than moral ideals, can we salvage moral and political universalism. In this book, Ingram provides the clearest, most systematic account yet of this schematic reversal and its radical possibilities.

Most famous in Europe for his efforts to establish the League of Nations under US leadership at the end of the First World War, Woodrow Wilson stands as one of America’s most influential and visionary presidents. A Democrat who pursued progressive domestic policies during his first term in office, he despised European colonialism and believed that the recipe for world peace was the self-determination of all peoples, particularly those under the yoke of the vast Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. His efforts to resist heavy reparations on Germany fell on deaf ears, while the refusal of France, Russia and Britain to accept a League of Nations led by America, together with the US Senate’s refusal to ratify the League, led to its ultimate failure. Woodrow Wilson has traditionally been seen by both admirers and critics as an idealist and a heroic martyr to the cause of internationalism. But John Thompson takes a different view, arguing that Wilson was a pragmatist, whose foreign policy was flexible and responsive to pressures and events. His conclusion, that Wilson was in fact an exceptionally skilful politician, who succeeded in maintaining national unity whilst leading America onto the world stage for the first time in its history, offers a challenging interpretation for anyone interested in the man and his era.