Woodrow Wilson and the World War A Chronicle of Our Own Times.

When Woodrow Wilson stepped into the White House in 1913, few could foresee the global stage he would eventually occupy. A Democrat breaking a two‑decade Republican streak, he was seen by many business leaders as a temporary inconvenience and by reformers as a domestic‑policy specialist. His academic pedigree—Princeton graduate, Johns Hopkins Ph.D., and professor of law and politics—set him apart from the typical career politician.

Wilson’s early life in the South, his Presbyterian upbringing, and a restless pursuit of ideas shaped a man both reserved and articulate. After years lecturing at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan and Princeton, he became university president, where his willingness to overturn entrenched traditions earned both admiration and fierce opposition. Those first tests of executive authority hinted at the decisive, sometimes controversial, leadership he would later bring to the emerging world conflict.