Woodrow Wilson: the Academic Man
John Milton Cooper
No academic career in American history, possibly in all history, has attracted as much attention as Woodrow Wilson's. Two reasons account for such extensive interest. First, during 25 years as a professor, writer about politics and history, and president of Princeton University, Wilson became the leading academic political scientist of his time and left his mark on the development of American higher education. Second and more important, Wilson's academic career served as preparation for his entrance into politics in 1910, which led swiftly to the governorship of New Jersey and the presidency of the United States. Yet those reasons for such extensive interest have distorted views of Wilson's academic years. Assessments of his significance to higher education have tended to cast his university leadership in a misleading light and to overlook its major thrust. The overweening concern with his political preparation has occasioned jerking his writings and opinions as a political scientist out of context, while his earlier life, particularly the Princeton experience, has served as the vehicle for adducing psychological patterns which supposedly determined his conduct on the national and world stage. Wilson's academic career needs a fresh view, from different perspectives.
