The Moralist

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"President from 1913 to 1921, Wilson set a high bar for himself and the country. No president believed more fervently in the primacy of morality in politics or the 'moral force' of ideas. [This book] measures Wilson by his own standards while recounting his unprecedented success as an economic reformer, his grand vision for a peaceful world order, his moral blind spots (on race, women's suffrage, and free speech in wartime), and a final defeat that was largely self-inflicted. The Moralist is a cautionary tale about moral vanity and the limitations of leadership that strays too far from political realities. But it is also a tale of the enduring power of high ideals. Despite Wilson's missteps, his searching moral questions--about the role of a government in the lives of its people and about the duty of the United States to the larger world--transformed the economy and revolutionized international relations. Wilson's ideas remained at the heart of American political debate for the rest of the twentieth century. The challenges of the twenty-first require many answers that Wilson could not have supplied, but his central moral question--What is the right thing for a government to do?--is as relevant, and as urgent, as ever."--Publisher