Post by RS Davis on Jan 26, 2004 2:59:44 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]John J. Dwyer Wrote:[/glow] It is impossible to grasp with clarity American history during the World War I era without accurately apprising President Woodrow Wilson, just as Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt, respectively, must be understood to in order interpret the War Between the States and World War II. Mainstream American historiography typically portrays Wilson as a devout, greathearted leader with a watershed vision for God using America as a sort of chosen nation to light the way to freedom and prosperity for the benighted nations filling the rest of the world. Indeed, prior to World War I, Wilson had already loosed the American military on a controversial series of forays against Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico. In the latter case, he sided with one faction during a murderous civil war, but managed to draw the contempt and hatred of both sides.
The late conservative scholar Robert Nisbet wrote that Wilson "was an ardent prophet of the state, the state indeed as it was known to European scholars and statesmen…. He preached it…. From him supremely comes the politicization, the centralization, and the commitment to bureaucracy of American society during the past seventy-five years."
Noted contemporary conservative historian Paul Johnson describes Wilson as having "…a self-regarding arrogance and smugness, masquerading as righteousness, which was always there and which grew with the exercise of power,"
Historian Donald Miller writes that Wilson intended to transform America as well as the other nations: "From a domestic and economic standpoint, as with his foreign policy, he wanted to expand the power of government to effect a revolution in society. He sought to increase both the size and scope of government. He said that he wanted to put government ‘at the service of humanity.’"
Miller points out that it was during Wilson’s two terms as president, from 1913–1921, that Congress passed bills creating the Federal Reserve System (1913); the Federal Income Tax (Amendment 16, ratified in 1913); the Federal Trade Commission (1914); the Federal Farm Loan Act (1916); and the Prohibition of alcohol (Amendment 18, ratified in 1919). Before he was elected president, federal government spending never exceeded three percent of the Gross Domestic Product, except during the War of 1812 and the War Between the States. It rose to more than twenty per cent of GDP during Wilson’s two terms as president.
The late conservative scholar Robert Nisbet wrote that Wilson "was an ardent prophet of the state, the state indeed as it was known to European scholars and statesmen…. He preached it…. From him supremely comes the politicization, the centralization, and the commitment to bureaucracy of American society during the past seventy-five years."
Noted contemporary conservative historian Paul Johnson describes Wilson as having "…a self-regarding arrogance and smugness, masquerading as righteousness, which was always there and which grew with the exercise of power,"
Historian Donald Miller writes that Wilson intended to transform America as well as the other nations: "From a domestic and economic standpoint, as with his foreign policy, he wanted to expand the power of government to effect a revolution in society. He sought to increase both the size and scope of government. He said that he wanted to put government ‘at the service of humanity.’"
Miller points out that it was during Wilson’s two terms as president, from 1913–1921, that Congress passed bills creating the Federal Reserve System (1913); the Federal Income Tax (Amendment 16, ratified in 1913); the Federal Trade Commission (1914); the Federal Farm Loan Act (1916); and the Prohibition of alcohol (Amendment 18, ratified in 1919). Before he was elected president, federal government spending never exceeded three percent of the Gross Domestic Product, except during the War of 1812 and the War Between the States. It rose to more than twenty per cent of GDP during Wilson’s two terms as president.
- Rick
