About the Book
What the World Should Be
Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy
Malcolm D. Magee
ISBN: 1-60258-070-7 / 978-1-60258-070-1
Price: $39.95
Discount: Trade
Publication Date: 2008
Specs: Hard Back / 200 pages / Notes / Works Cited / Index
In What the World Should Be, Malcolm Magee demonstrates that Woodrow Wilson was immersed in a Presbyterian tradition that shaped his presidency. He argues that Wilson's religious convictions shaped his concepts of effective leadership, the way he reasoned, and his use of language. In particular, Wilson's religious beliefs accustomed him to the theological principle of antinomy: that two principles could both be right even when, considered only in the light of logic, they appear mutually contradictory. These convictions ultimately made Wilson believe he was providentially chosen to bring divinely ordered freedom to the nations and peoples of the earth.
Available July 2008
Reviews:
"This elegantly written narrative makes an utterly convincing argument: religious belief was at the heart of Wilson's vaunted idealism. After reading Magee's book, you will never see the diplomatic history of the World War I era in the same way again."
-Michael Kazin, Professor of History, Georgetown University
"Finally, we now have a serious examination of Woodrow Wilson's theology. In this thoughtful, well-researched book, Malcolm Magee goes beyond the usual stereotypes of Wilson to reveal a complex, deeply spiritual man who was both beholden to religious and political thought in equal measure. In terms of both history and historiography, students of American foreign relations are in Magee's debt. An excellent book."
-Andrew Preston, Faculty of History, Cambridge University
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