The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

By John Milton Cooper Jr.

Book Overview

The colossal figures who shaped the politics of industrial America emerge in full scale in this engrossing comparative biography. In both the depth and sophistication of intellect that they brought to politics and in the titanic conflict they waged with each other, Roosevelt and Wilson were, like Hamilton and Jefferson before them, the political architects for an entire century. All previous efforts to treat the philosophies and programs of Roosevelt's New Nationalism and Wilson's New Freedom have been partial and episodic. Now John Milton Cooper reconstructs in parallel lines the entire range of their ideologies and their struggles--their social identification in terms of class, education, and regional roots; the origins and evolution of their political thought; their party leadership roles; and their psychological characters. After tracking the shared identities of young manhood, Cooper explains the conflict of their mature years that developed from opposing philosophies of government. Not until 1912, when Wilson ran for president, did they come together partially and briefly on common practical grounds of reform of the political process and efforts to curb big business in the public interest. Later, foreign policy in particular pitted them in a deeper conflict that consumed the rest of their lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674947517
• ISBN13: 9780674947511
• Release Date: October 1985
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

a good book, often a great book

I recently became interested in TR. This book brought forth the life stories of two political giants and made sense of their lives together. Though they lived a great portion of their lives in different realms, ultimately the focus of this book, presidential politics, and esspecially foreign policy, bright the two adversaries together. Cooper does a great job demonstraiting their importance to the "American presidency," and esspecially the shaping of twentieth century foreign policy.

Two presidents not compared often enough

"John Milton Cooper...blends these contrasting and kindred elements into a masterful portrait of two of our most intriguing presidents," David Kennedy in the New York Times Book Review, November 20 1983. TR and Wilson are often considered to be the same, especially in the in the domestic realm. The New Freedom was simply an extension of New Nationalism. But Cooper espouses the differences through analysis of both important domestic debates and the politics of war and internationalism. For anyone interested in studying Roosevelt, Wilson, and the Progressive era this book is an important read.

Well-reason parallel lives

This is a great work of scholarship dealing with two of the most important figures of the early 20th century. Cooper is able to bring out the differences in the approaches that both men had in setting the US political agenda in the early 20th century. Cooper is always a great treat to read. I must say that the title is somewhat interesting. When looking at Roosevelt or Wilson who is in fact the warrior and who the priest?