Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy

(Hardback)

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Recurring throughout our history are the ideas that repressive governments are doomed to failure; that liberty is a motivating force; that freedom comes with responsibilities and must be guided by principles; that the example of our democracy is a challenge to all forms of political repression and an inspiration to those desiring to be free. Wilson and Truman took these ideas as the starting point for their policy formulation and pronouncements. Truman both acknowledged his indebtedness to Wilson and learned from his mistakes. This study places the two presidents within the broader American tradition and explores the way they combined reverence for the past with innovative policies. Pierce provides a cohesive argument against those who simplify and categorize American ideals in order to demean them. Her findings show that the assumption that Wilson was an idealist while Truman was a realist distorts our understanding of these men and denies the seriousness of their positions. She reveals Truman's brilliance as a foreign policy strategist and his fervency as a spokesperson for American ideals. He was never willing to dispense with geopolitics for the sake of internationalism, nor with internationalism for the sake of geopolitics, but insisted that our mission and our power were combined threads in our work for freedom. Truman's wisely construed version of Wilsonianism, which itself was an interpretation of America's mission and power, holds great promise for the United States today.

Reviews

"At last, a careful and illuminating analysis of Truman's debt to and improvement on the internationalist foreign policy of Woodrow Wilson. Grounded in a respect for American principles, faithful to the historical record, and open to the possibility that Wilson and Truman have something important to teach us, Pierce's book is a model of responsible scholarship. A remarkable achievement."-Bradford Wilson National Association of Scholars Princeton University
"The historical legacy of Woodrow Wilson has been the subject of considerable controversy. In this stimulating new work of historical interpretation, Anne Pierce shows convincingly that Wilsonian principles were an essential ingredient of America's Cold War foreign policy. It can never be said with certainty that Wilson would have been a cold warrior had he lived, but, thanks to this book, it is now clear that his ideas were unmistakably present in the outlook of Harry Truman. . . . By arguing powerfully that the Cold War cannot be comprehended in terms of realism or idealism alone, Pierce significantly enlarges our understanding of the role of realism and idealism in 20th century U.S. foreign relations."-Frank Ninkovich St. Johns University
"This richly detailed study of Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman is much more than a comparison of the foreign policies of the two presidents. It is, as well, a sensitive exploration of the tensions between America's understanding of its unique mission in the world, and the effects of the power that has been used to sustain and project that mission. Anne Pierce enriches our understanding of the past, and at the same time shows how a careful balancing of the requirements of mission and power has relevance for the present."-Dorothy V. Jones Scholar-in-Residence, The Newberry Library
"Useful to those who would like to have more than a superficial understanding of the evolution of 20th century foreign affairs."-Akira Iriye Harvard University
This is a good book.-Political Science Quarterly
This is a good book.Political Science Quarterly
"This is a good book."-Political Science Quarterly

Author Bio

ANNE R. PIERCE is an independent researcher. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago.