Wilson vs. Debs

Wilson was also responsible for segregating Washington D.C. In my opinion, a very bad guy. But newsreels always show him smiling. Perhaps one of the reasons he has been treated relatively kindly by the history books.

David, thanks for this addendum. Maybe if more people become aware of this bit of history, fewer people will be running around calling themselves "progressives."

There's a lot to dislike about Wilson. Not only did he promise to keep us out of the war, but he was a racist, and this whole thing with Eugene Debs was disgusting. On top of that, he encouraged the Europeans to divvy up the continent along ethnic lines, something that was and may still be popular, but is really quite unworkable.

I have never been convinced that the US had a real stake in the European War that was called The Great War, then World War I.

Wilson has been due for reassessment since the end of the Cold War reduced the significance of institutions he prototyped.

Wilson wasn't all bad. He ushered in federal growth that led to the New Deal and today's Obamaism. A true progressive, he got us into a war he campaigned against...sounds like our current action in Afghanistan. But it was a war to end all wars. Don't forget the
League of Nations. A president of Princeton and governor of NJ. My hero!

Suppression of speech in the Wilson era was a major factor in the Spanish Flu epidemic, described in John M. Barry's The Great Influenza.

We call it the Spanish Flu not because it began in Spain, but because as a neutral country, Spain was one of few countries that allowed news reports about the epidemic. The United States and other nations thought accurate reporting would undermine the war effort. Steps that could have reduce the outbreak were not taken in the name of wartime confidence--we let millions die rather than sound a defeatist tone.