Woodrow Wilson: Our Twenty-Eighth President [Large Print]

by Carol Brunelli

A thorough, illustrated biography discussing the president's childhood, his career, his family, and his term as President of the United States. Includes a time line and glossary. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Library Binding
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567668631
• ISBN13: 9781567668636
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Child's World
• Length: 48 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.5" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 6

Customer Reviews

The life of the one college professor who became President

Before there "The West Wing" made Dr. Josiah Bartlett the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson was the first college professor to make it to the White House, a fact which has inspired me for most of my life. In this juvenile biography of Wilson for the Our Presidents series, Carol Brunelli and Ann Graham Gaines tells the story of how this scholar, whose first name was actually Thomas, became the most idealist president in the nation's history. Young students will also be interested to learn that historians suspect Wilson might have suffered from a learning disability, which would mean that George W. Bush would not be the first president to overcome that disability.The first chapter of this informative little volume not only establishes the idea of Wilson as a scholar, but also shows how his written works constituted rather prominent critiques of the American system of government. The second chapter covers his entry to politics as Wilson went from being a professor at Princeton to the university's president, and then the reform oriented governor of New Jersey. After only two years as governor, Wilson became the Democratic candidate for president in 1912, and with Theodore Roosevelt running a third party campaign against his hand picked successor, William Howard Taft, Wilson was able to take advantage of the split to win the White House.Brunelli and Gaines devote two chapters to Wilson's tenure in the White House. The first focuses on Wilson as a reformer in the White House, lowering tariffs and establishing the national income tax (with varying rates), reforming banking, and improving working conditions (including making it illegal to hire young children). The final chapter looks at Wilson's leadership during the First World War, because although Wilson campaigned for re-election on a pledge to keep the United States out of the war, Wilson ended up seeing German aggression as making it necessary to make the world "safe for democracy." Much of the chapter is devoted to Wilson's failed efforts after the war to get the United States involved in the League of Nations, including his debilitating stroke. But the authors make it clear that Wilson's beliefs have been vindicated, not only by receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, but by the founding of the United Nations, which is seen as being based on Wilson's goals.As always in addition to the main text providing the basic biographical information about Wilson's private and public life, there are sidebars on topics such as Wilson's first wife and the Committee on Public Information. The margins are crammed with Interesting Facts such as Wilson's first memory was hearing Lincoln had been elected (he would have four) and that he was a baseball player as a boy. The back of the book has a Time Line covering Wilson's life, Glossary Terms, a list of Our Presidents, Presidential Fact, and places to look For Further Information. The volumes in the Our Presidents series work well either as intro