Writing of Woodrow Wilson in 1927, Winston Churchill concluded that the actions of the United States during the First World War “depended...on the workings of this man’s mind and spirit to the exclusion of every other factor; and that he played a part in the fate of nations incomparably more direct and personal than any other man.” We will explore that mind and spirit and try to see how, under Wilson’s leadership, the nation went from neutrality to war, from peace to mobilization, and from victory to
peacemaking. We will examine how the president who in his first term showed himself to be a master of American politics - failed to gain American entry into the League of Nations. We will follow Wilson as his presidency ends in physical collapse, incapacity, and political rejection.