Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President, a progressive reformer at home and idealistic internationalist abroad whose vision of a new world order shaped—and haunted—the 20th century. A political science professor and Princeton president before entering politics, Wilson brought intellectual rigor and moral certainty to the presidency.
Wilson's domestic progressivism created the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, and the income tax, while establishing the eight-hour workday for railroad workers. He was reelected in 1916 on the slogan 'He Kept Us Out of War,' then led America into World War I to 'make the world safe for democracy.'
Wilson's Fourteen Points proposed a new international order based on self-determination, open diplomacy, and collective security through the League of Nations. Yet the Senate rejected the League, his health collapsed from a stroke, and his vision of international cooperation remained unrealized until after World War II. Wilson's idealistic internationalism and its tragic failure established the poles of American foreign policy debate ever since.