- Examine Wilsons complex personality
and explain how it influenced both his great successes and his failures in
politics.
REFERENCE: August Mecksher, Woodrow
Wilson (1991).
- Examine Wilsons idealistic approach
to both domestic and foreign policy. Show how he used his eloquence and moral
appeals to arouse the public and achieve his goals at home, and explain why
this approach was not as successful abroad.
REFERENCE: John Morton Blum, Woodrow
Wilson and the Politics of Morality (1956).
- Consider how Wilsons attempt to
promote American-style democracy in Mexico led him into military intervention
and near-war. The focus might be on the difficulties even well-intentioned
policies encountered in the face of a revolutionary upheaval such as Mexico
was experiencing.
REFERENCE: P. Edward Haley, Revolution
and Intervention: The Diplomacy of Taft and Wilson with Mexico, 1910 - 1917 (1970).
- Analyze why Wilson found himself headed
to the brink of war with Germany over the submarine. Show how Americas
traditions, geography, and interests tended to create sympathy for the Allies,
while the barbarous new weapon struck directly at Wilsons
moral approach to foreign policy.
REFERENCE: John M. Cooper, Jr., The
Vanity of Power: American Isolation and the First World War, 1914 - 1917 (1969).
