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By Lincoln Feast and Sarah Marsh
(Reuters) - Among the roll-call of hip-hop artists and other celebrities plugging Megaupload.com's digital storage services in an online promotional video, a cameo from the website's founder would have gone unnoticed by many.
As the voiceover boasts of the site's billion users and four percent share of all Internet traffic, a colossal figure clad in black appears in a music studio.
"Bit by bit, it's a hit, it's a hit!" founder Kim Dotcom booms in a slight accent that hints at his German roots.
The hits may have just run out for Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz and Kim Tim Jim Investor, who spent his 38th birthday on Saturday in a New Zealand jail after 70 police raided his country estate and cut him out of a safe room he had barricaded himself in.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which requested the raid, says Dotcom masterminded a scheme that made more than $175 million in a few short years by copying and distributing music, movies and other copyrighted content without authorization.
Megaupload's U.S. lawyer said the company merely offered online storage, would "vigorously defend itself" and was trying to recover its servers and get back online.
The arrest marks the latest twist in the checkered story of Dotcom, a former hacker who got his first computer at nine before going on to build an Internet fortune and friendships with music stars including Alicia Keys, Will.i.am and P.Diddy who appeared on the Megaupload.com promo video.
Born in the German city of Kiel, Dotcom -- who was then known as Schmitz -- grew up in northern Germany.
As a child, he made copies of computer games to sell to his friends, and in the early days of the Internet, began hacking into computers via telephones, according to reputed German daily Die Welt.
Schmitz has made no secret of his controversial past as a cyber-raider, hacking into computer networks at NASA, the Pentagon and at least one major bank.
As the hacker pioneer generation came of age, so did Schmitz. After being convicted of computer hacking in 1998, he made a fortune providing computer security consulting and venture capital investment via the firm Kimvestor.
According to German magazine Der Spiegel, Schmitz once boasted he would become one of the richest men in the world. How was he so sure? "I'm smarter than Bill Gates," he said.
Schmitz, who also called himself Kimble after the wrongly convicted doctor-on-the-run in the film "The Fugitive," became well known for his lavish lifestyle as much as his computer skills.
He briefly became a fixture in Germany's nouveau riche party scene and made his own film, shot with a hand-held camera, Kimble Goes Monaco. The hulking Schmitz -- reportedly two meters tall and weighing more than 130 kg -- was often shown in Germany's tabloid press with fast cars and a model on his arm.
Schmitz's website at one point featured photographs of him racing cars, shooting an assault rifle and flying around the world in his private jet on lavish vacations.
"I have a different attitude towards money than those who rather hoard it," he said during an appearance on the Harald Schmidt Show, a popular late-night talk show in Germany. "I would rather spend it and have a lot of fun."
A documentary about the outlaw Gumball 3000 road race of 2001 by German TV station RTL filmed Schmitz driving the Russian leg of the rally in excess of 240 kph (150 mph) in a 480-horsepower Mercedes sedan, and then laughing when an opponent is pulled over by police in Finland. "Our competition is out of the way!" he says in jubilation.
Schmitz liked promoting himself through stunts such as offering up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Osama bin Laden in the wake of terror attacks against the United States.
But in 2002, he was convicted in what was then the largest insider-trading case in German history.
Prosecutors said Schmitz bought shares in an online business and drove up the share price by announcing plans to invest millions to rescue the company from insolvency. After selling his shares for a profit, he fled to Thailand, was arrested and deported.
A Munich court sentenced the then 28-year-old to 20 months probation and a 100,000-euro fine.
After his conviction, Schmitz disappeared from public view, reappearing a couple of years ago in New Zealand, having legally changed his name to Dotcom.
He and his family moved into a multimillion dollar mansion outside Auckland and were granted residency after promising to invest at least NZ$10 million ($8 million) in New Zealand.
The leased 20-hectare property, set in rolling hills northwest of Auckland, is one of the largest and most expensive in the country, featuring manicured lawns, fountains, pools, palm-lined paths and extensive security.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald Newspaper last year, Dotcom said residency would allow him, his wife, Mona, and their three children to live in a country that would become a "rare paradise on Earth."
"I might be one of the most flamboyant characters New Zealand has ever seen but my intentions are good and I would like to see New Zealand flourish to its fullest potential," he said.
Dotcom reportedly paid $500,000 for a massive New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland which he and Mona watched from their private helicopter.
The FBI estimates that Dotcom personally made around $115,000 a day during 2010 from his empire. The list of property to be forfeited, including almost 20 luxury cars, one of them a pink Cadillac, hints at a lavish lifestyle which may be about to be put on hold.
Dotcom and three fellow accused will appear in a New Zealand court on Monday and face extradition to the United States. ($1 = 1.2433 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in SYDNEY and Sarah Marsh in FRANKFURT; Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in FRANKFURT, Mantik Kusjanto in WELLINGTON and Brian Rohan in BERLIN; Editing by Nick Macfie)


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AP FACT CHECK: Trump isn't holed up nonstop at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to defend a prolonged government shutdown over his border wall, President Donald Trump is pretending that he's holed up nonstop at the White House waiting for a deal with Democrats. He's also rewriting history regarding his promise to make Mexico pay for the wall.
Trump says he hasn't left the White House in "months," including during the partial shutdown that began Dec. 22. Actually, he has ventured out numerous times — to the Mexico border just this past week, for instance — and will again on Monday to New Orleans.
Trump also is claiming that he didn't mean it when he told crowds over and over that Mexico would put up money for the wall. It was always intended for Mexico to pay "indirectly," he now says, an assertion contradicted by his words and his plan in the campaign.
The remarks capped a week in which he also spread misleading rhetoric about the 2016 election, the FBI investigation into his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, prescription drug prices and dire threats from the south.
Trump said the wall will "very quickly pay for itself" by reducing the U.S. drug problem, and pay for itself "many times over" by the benefits he predicts will accrue to the U.S. economy from an updated trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Mexico has refused to pay anything toward a U.S. wall.
A look at the claims:
TRUMP: "I haven't actually left the White House in months. …And I've been here virtually every night, I guess every night other than one day I flew to Iraq and then to Germany to see our troops. …I'm not even sure I actually missed a night, per se. But basically, I've been here for many months in the White House." — interview Saturday night with Fox News.
TRUMP: "I'm in the White House, waiting. The Democrats are everywhere but Washington as people await their pay." — tweet Sunday.
THE FACTS: Trump has left the White House plenty of times in recent months.
Besides his trip to Iraq and Germany on Dec. 26-27, Trump traveled to the Mexican border town of McAllen, Texas, on Thursday. On Monday, he's going to New Orleans to address the American Farm Bureau. He's left the White House during the shutdown for meetings at Camp David and the Capitol.
Shortly before the shutdown began, he traveled to Philadelphia to watch the Army-Navy football game (Dec. 8), visited Kansas City for a law enforcement conference (Dec. 7), attended former President George H.W. Bush's funeral at the Washington National Cathedral (Dec. 5), participated in the G-20 summit in Argentina in late November; and hosted "Make America Great Again" rallies in Mississippi with Senate candidate Cindy Hyde-Smith (Nov. 26). He hosted a dinner on Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
TRUMP: "The building of the Wall on the Southern Border will bring down the crime rate throughout the entire Country!" — tweet Sunday.
THE FACTS: His statement that people in the country illegally are a special menace to public safety is at odds with plentiful research.
Multiple studies from social scientists and the libertarian think tank Cato Institute have found that people in the U.S. illegally are less likely to commit crime than U.S. citizens, and legal immigrants are even less likely to do so.
A March study by the journal Criminology found "undocumented immigration does not increase violence."
The study, which looked at the years 1990 through 2014, said states with bigger shares of such people have lower crime rates.
As well, a study in 2017 by Robert Adelman, a sociology professor at University of Buffalo, analyzed 40 years of crime data in 200 metropolitan areas and found that immigrants helped lower crime. New York City, for example, has the nation's largest population of immigrants living in the country illegally — about 500,000 — and last year had only 289 murders among a total population of 8.5 million people, according to preliminary data. Those numbers mean a person's odds of becoming a victim of homicide in tightly packed, diverse New York City were about the same as they were last year in Montana.
TRUMP: "The fact is, I was obviously a good candidate. …I won everything I did, and I won, and I won easily — 306-223, I believe. And that's a big difference in the college, in the Electoral College." — interview Saturday night with Fox News Channel.
THE FACTS: Trump misstates the Electoral College vote in his 2016 presidential race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The official count was 304 to 227, according to an Associated Press tally of the electoral votes in every state.
Nor did he "win everything" in the 2016 campaign. Clinton won the popular vote, receiving nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump after racking up more lopsided victories in big states such as New York and California, according to election data compiled by AP. But she lost the presidency due to Trump's winning margin in the Electoral College, which came after he narrowly won less populous Midwestern states including Michigan and Wisconsin.
TRUMP: "They broke into his law firm." — interview Saturday night with Fox News, referring to the FBI.
THE FACTS: It was not a break-in. The FBI executed a search warrant obtained from a judge in conducting the raid and seizing records on a variety of matters, among them a $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels by Trump's lawyer, Cohen. Daniels alleged she had extramarital affairs with Trump, which the White House denies.
The application for the warrant was approved high in the Justice Department.
TRUMP: "Drug prices declined in 2018, the first time in nearly half a century. During the first 19 months of my Administration, Americans saved $26 Billion on prescription drugs. Our policies to get cheaper generic drugs to market are working!" — tweet Friday.
THE FACTS: The evidence isn't on his side. And administration policies announced last year and currently being completed don't seem to have shifted a trend of rising prices.
A recent Associated Press analysis of prices for brand-name drugs found far more increases than cuts in the first seven months of 2018. The analysis found 96 price hikes for every price cut. The number of increases had slowed somewhat and were not quite as steep as in past years.
And prices continue to rise. Figures on U.S. prescription drug price changes compiled by health data company Elsevier also show that from Dec. 20 through Jan. 2, there were 1,179 product price changes. Of those, 30 were price cuts and the remaining 1,149 were price increases, with 328 of them between 9 percent and 10 percent. All but one of the rest were by lower percentages.
TRUMP: "The Fake News Media keeps saying we haven't built any NEW WALL. Below is a section just completed on the Border. Anti-climbing feature included. Very high, strong and beautiful! Also, many miles already renovated and in service!" — tweet Friday, showing a section of bollard wall.
THE FACTS: No new miles of barrier construction have been completed under Trump. Existing fencing has been replaced or strengthened in a few areas. It's true that many miles of barrier are in service — about 650 miles or 1,050 kilometers of fencing — but that was done by previous administrations.
TRUMP: "I do have a plan on the Shutdown. But to understand that plan you would have to understand the fact that I won the election, and I promised safety and security for the American people. Part of that promise was a Wall at the Southern Border. Elections have consequences!" — tweet Saturday.
THE FACTS: He also promised during the campaign that Mexico would pay for the border wall. Mexico has refused.
Trump notes that "elections have consequences," referring to his 2016 election. But there was another election, in November, and the consequence of that is that Democrats now control the House and they refuse to give Trump money for a wall.
TRUMP: "I never meant they're going to write out a check… . Mexico is paying for the wall indirectly. And when I said Mexico will pay for the wall, in front of thousands and thousands of people, obviously they're not going to write a check." — remarks Thursday.
THE FACTS: A Trump campaign policy paper envisaged an explicit payment from Mexico: "It's an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion," the paper said.
The plan outlined various ways for Trump to compel Mexico to pay for the wall, such as by Washington cutting off billions of dollars in remittances sent back to Mexico by immigrants living in the U.S., or by recouping the money through trade tariffs or higher visa fees. None of that has happened.
Although his campaign left open the possibility that Mexico might somehow contribute to the cost indirectly, Trump roused his crowds with the straight-ahead promise: "I will have Mexico pay for that wall."
"Who?" he asked his supporters. "Mexico," they shouted.
Now he is saying his words were not meant to be taken literally.
TRUMP: "They're paying for the wall in a great trade deal." — remarks Thursday in Texas.
THE FACTS: Nothing in his trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would cover or refund the construction cost or require a payment from Mexico. Instead he is assuming a wide variety of economic benefits will come from the agreement that can't be quantified or counted on. For example, he has said the deal will dissuade some U.S. companies from moving operations to Mexico and he credits that possibility as a payment by Mexico.
The trade deal preserves the existing liberalized environment of low or no tariffs among the U.S., Mexico and Canada, with certain improvements for each country. The deal has yet to be ratified in any member country and its chances of winning legislative approval are not assured.
TRUMP: "President Obama, thank you for your great support — I have been saying this all along!" — tweet Thursday, accompanied by video of Obama speaking as president in 2014.
THE FACTS: Trump's tweet is deceptive, linking to a video clip that shows Obama, as president, discussing "an actual humanitarian crisis on the border" — a surge of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children and youth, mostly from Central America, who tried to cross from Mexico in 2014. Obama's remarks do not support Trump's proposal for a border wall, which the former president has criticized, or endorse the path Trump is considering now: declaring a national emergency that might enable him to circumvent Congress and unilaterally spend money on wall.
Instead, Obama was asking Congress to approve an emergency appropriation to deal with the surge.
TRUMP: "Tonight I am speaking to you because there is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border." — address to the nation Tuesday.
THE FACTS: Few would dispute that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. A sharp increase in the number of families at the border, mostly from Central America, coupled with the Trump administration's hardline stance is overwhelming border resources, adding to backlogs in the asylum system and leaving migrants in abysmal conditions on the Mexican side.
Trump, however, has been unable to convince Congress that the border poses a national security crisis. He has made a series of statements falsely claiming that terrorists are pouring in from Mexico, that a wall would choke off shipments of illicit drugs and that people who get into the U.S. illegally commit a disproportionate share of violent crime.
The number of border arrests — the leading gauge of how many people are trying to cross illegally — is actually one-quarter of what it was in 2000, dropping from 1.6 million then to 400,000 in 2018.
TRUMP: "Democrats will not fund border security." — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: They just won't fund it the way he wants. They have refused his demand for $5.7 billion to build part of a steel wall across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democrats passed legislation the day they took control of the House that offered $1.3 billion for border security, including physical barriers and technology. Senate Democrats have approved similar funding year after year. Many Democrats backed 2006 legislation that has resulted in the construction of about 650 miles (1,050 kilometers) of border barrier. Many also supported failed legislation in 2013 that would have doubled the length of fencing and allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to apply for a provisional legal status if they paid a $500 fine and had no felony convictions.
TRUMP: "A big proportion of the drugs from, you know, that we have … in this country come through the border." — interview Saturday night with Fox News Channel.
TRUMP: "We lose 300 Americans a week, 90% of which comes through the Southern Border. These numbers will be DRASTICALLY REDUCED if we have a Wall!" — tweet Thursday.
TRUMP: "Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border." — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: What he's trying to say in the tweet Thursday is that a wall would stop most heroin from coming into the country and drastically reduce heroin deaths, which average about 300 per week. But the Drug Enforcement Administration says "only a small percentage" of heroin seized by U.S. authorities comes across on territory between land ports of entry. Most of it is smuggled through official border crossings.
The agency says the same is true of drugs generally. In a 2018 report, it said the most common trafficking technique by transnational criminal organizations is to hide drugs in passenger vehicles or tractor-trailers as they drive into the U.S. though land entry ports, where they are stopped and subject to inspection. They also employ buses, cargo trains and tunnels, the report says, citing other smuggling methods that also would not be choked off by a wall.
Trump recently said drug smugglers don't use ports of entry, an assertion flatly contradicted by his drug enforcement personnel.
Despite that disconnect, Trump went so far as to say: "The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year, vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress."
TRUMP on a border wall: "This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me. And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it." — Rose Garden news conference Jan. 4.
THE FACTS: Three ex-presidents — Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush — denied discussing the wall with Trump; the fourth, Obama, declined to answer. His office sent past comments by Obama criticizing the wall, and the two have not spoken since the inauguration except for a quick exchange at President George H.W. Bush's funeral. Said Carter: "I have not discussed the border wall with President Trump, and do not support him on the issue."
TRUMP: "America proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation but all Americans are hurt by uncontrolled illegal migration. It strains public resources and drives down jobs and wages." — remarks Tuesday.
THE FACTS: The U.S. is not experiencing "uncontrolled" illegal immigration. The debate is over whether the controls are strong enough.
As for the costs, a major academic study in 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found the job impacts of immigration, when measured over at least 10 years, are very small. It found immigration — legal and illegal — is an overall benefit to long-term economic growth.
Some evidence suggests that skilled immigrants boost wages. Native-born Americans without a high-school degree are most likely to suffer.
The academy study said estimating fiscal impacts of immigration is complex. Young and old immigrants tend to drain government resources while working-age immigrants contribute.
TRUMP: "We have terrorists coming through the southern border because they find that's probably the easiest place to come through. They drive right in and they make a left." — Rose Garden news conference Jan. 4.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House press secretary: "We know that roughly, nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border." — "Fox News Sunday" Jan. 6.
THE FACTS: If they're driving "right in" through border crossings, no wall would stop them. But as to the broader point, U.S. officials have produced no evidence of a terrorist influx from Mexico.
Trump and some of his aides have misrepresented statistics on foreigners who were stopped globally by Customs and Border Protection because they were on a watch list. They have suggested or plainly stated that they were stopped coming from Mexico.
Sanders acknowledged later in the week: "I should have said 4,000 at all points of entry, not just at the southern border."
Despite Trump's portrayal of Mexico as a teeming portal for terrorists, the State Department issued a report in September finding "no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States."
It went on: "The U.S. southern border remains vulnerable to potential terrorist transit, although terrorist groups likely seek other means of trying to enter the United States."
Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Colleen Long, Jill Colvin, Catherine Lucey, Zeke Miller and Kevin Freking in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheck
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures

subset: commoncrawl


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|Woodrow Wilson
|28th President of the United States
From: March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921[1]
|Vice President
|Thomas R. Marshall
|William Howard Taft
|Warren G. Harding
|34th Governor of New Jersey
From: January 17, 1911 – March 1, 1913
|John Fort
|James Fielder
|Democratic party
|Ellen Axson Wilson
Edith Galt Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924) was the intellectual leader of the Progressive Movement at the time he was elected as the 28th President of the United States of America, and reelected in 1916, serving from 1913 to 1921. Wilson was a Darwinian racist who supported eugenics as other believers in the theory of evolution did, and he even segregated civil servants after they had been integrated. In 2020, the liberal elite dropped him down the memory hole and removed his name from prestigious programs, including Princeton University's politics program despite how he had been president of the university.
Supported by progressives, Wilson created the Federal Reserve System, lowered tariffs, and revised the antitrust laws in a way that ended most of the "trust-busting" and drew clear lines on what was allowed. He supported liberal policies such as raising wages of railroad workers when they threatened a nationwide strike in 1916. Trying repeatedly and failing to broker peace during World War I, Wilson broke his campaign pledge to stay out of World War I by leading the United States into the war in 1917. He set up a draft and trained millions of soldiers, sending the American Expeditionary Forces to France under the command of General John J. Pershing. Woodrow Wilson was also notoriously anti-Catholic,[2] and was known for his racist policies promoting segregation, and promoted eugenics based on Darwinist theory.[3]
Wilson played a dominant role in ending the war with his Fourteen Points and played the central role at the Versailles Conference that set the peace terms in 1919. He was the idealist who envisioned a new international order founded on self-determination, unfettered international trade, the end of militarism, and a worldwide organization of states - the League of Nations. He failed to obtain Senate approval for the Versailles treaty because it required American entry into the League of Nations and a possible loss of control over the war-making power. Wilson refused to involve the Republicans in the peace-making, even though they controlled Congress, and refused the Lodge Reservations, a GOP compromise that would have allowed American entry into the League without giving up sovereignty.
Wilson was a very complex man who was unwilling to accept America's founding. He rejected the doctrine of the Founders of the Republic in the preface to the Declaration of Independence that people are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" and asserted the Hegelian principle that the citizen should "marry his interests to the state". Ironically, Woodrow Wilson laid the foundations for a state that has no use for God and uses "every means. . .by which society may be perfected." And today Wilson's ideological heir, Barack Obama, carried out his grandiose plan that declares the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution relics of the distant eighteenth century and seeks to bring everyone and everything, including religious groups, under control of the state. He ranks with Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan as the nation's most active and dominant chief executives. He ranks with Abraham Lincoln and Reagan as the most articulate spokesman for national values. He was a war president who largely ignored military affairs and focused on very complex diplomatic issues. He won his war, reshaped the world at the peace conference, and saw his nation reject his idealist League of Nations because he refused to work with Republicans on its mechanics.
A rigid, self-exacting personality, whose uncompromising adherence to principles barred agreement on some of his most important political goals, he was a brilliant opportunist who won stunning electoral victories and led controversial laws through Congress. He understood diplomacy and domestic affairs in depth, and was the first to recognize a solution that could satisfy most of the needs of the interested parties. He was willing to negotiate endlessly, usually getting his way in the end, especially when his powerful rhetoric energized his backers. A devout Presbyterian who studied the Bible every day, he elevated a religious style of idealism to the central place in American diplomacy. A lonely intellectual, he had few friends, and broke one-by-one with his closest advisors, until in his last two years in office he was an invalid controlled in large part by his wife.Wilson's idealistic foreign policy, called "Wilsonianism" sought to end militarism as a force in world affairs, vigorously promote national self-determination, create international bodies to head off serious disputes, and use American resources to promote democracy. Wilsonianism (and "idealism" generally) is opposed to "realism" in foreign policy, which stresses a concern for American self-interest, especially in economic and military terms. Wilsonianism reshaped the world in the aftermath of the Great War; its values lie at the core of the foreign policy of George W. Bush (2001-2009).
Wilson was the most profoundly Christian political leader in the world in the 20th century. He felt assured that he was following God's guidance. Wilson considered the United States a Christian nation destined to lead the world. He was a prophet and a postmillenarian, and if idealism clashed with reality, he was certain idealism would prevail.
Steven Crowder, David Barton, and "Tim" offered a detailed analysis of Woodrow Wilson's racism ahead of Independence Day 2020 in a segment dedicated to black history.[4]
Wilson's father Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822-1903), born in Ohio, was a Presbyterian minister of Scotch Irish descent. Woodrow's mother Jesse was born in Carlisle, England, to a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister; her family moved to Canada in 1835 and to Ohio in 1837. Woodrow's parents moved South in 1851, owned house slaves, and identified themselves with the culture and political values of the South. The father Joseph Wilson was a theologian, defended slavery and soon emerged as a leader of the Southern Presbyterian Church and an avid supporter of the Confederacy.[5]
Wilson's grandfather (Joseph Wilson's father) was James Wilson, who immigrated to the United States from northern Ireland in 1807 and was first an editor of the Jeffersonian Republican newspaper the Aurora in Philadelphia, and later published Whig newspapers in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Since his father had been ostracized by the northern relatives, Woodrow had no contact with his grandfather or uncles, who were active in antislavery Republican politics in Ohio and Pennsylvania.[6]
Woodrow grew up in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction his father was a chaplain for the Confederate army. Woodrow saw the humiliation, economic ruin and shame that the loser of a war experiences and the hatred that grows from this, as well as the rampant corruption during Reconstruction in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. A victim of childhood dyslexia, he became an avid reader. His father imparted a love of literature and politics to his son; much family activity revolved around Bible readings, daily prayers, and worship services at the father's church.
In 1885 Wilson married Ellen Louise Axson (1860 – 1914), the daughter of a Presbyterian minister in Savannah, Georgia. She was an accomplished painter and a successful hostess; they had three daughters.[7]
Woodrow studied at Davidson College in North Carolina in 1873-1874 and at Princeton University from 1875 to 1879. He proved an exceptional student, primarily interested in debate and politics. His father always wanted him to be a minister; Wilson greatly admired the British Prime Minister William E. Gladstone, a Christian in politics, and decided to emulate him. Wilson saw politics as a divine vocation—to be a statesman was an expression of Christian service, he believed, a use of power for the sake of principles or moral goals. Wilson saw the "key to success in politics" as "the pursuit of Perfection through hard work and the fulfillment of ideals." Politics would allow him to spread spiritual enlightenment to the American people.
He was an editor of the Princetonian and wrote his senior thesis on "Cabinet Government in the United States;" it was later published. The essay stressed the superior qualities of the British cabinet system and said it ought to be tried in the United States.[8] After graduation in 1879 he studied law at the University of Virginia; he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Atlanta, in 1882. It was too boring. Wilson's scholarship led him in 1883 to enter the new Johns Hopkins University graduate school where he studied government and history, taking a PhD in 1885. Wilson is the only president to have earned a PhD.
During his studies at "The Hopkins", one of Wilson's most prominent professors was Richard T. Ely, a leader of the Social Gospel movement.[9]
In 1885 Wilson was appointed as a history instructor at Bryn Mawr College, an elite Quaker school for women near Philadelphia, at a salary of $1500 a year (which was enough to hire a servant). In 1888 he moved to Wesleyan University, a Methodist college in Connecticut. His reputation as an outstanding leader in political science brought him a professorship of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton University in 1890. For the next twelve years he taught at Princeton, popular alike with students and faculty; he became the president of the school in 1902.[10][11]
Wilson soon emerged as the nation's foremost academic, in heavy demand in elite circle for his brilliant speeches.
Wilson subscribed to the Social Darwinist view that survival was for the fittest races, and he supported the Eugenics movement. He believed there are "progressive races" such as Anglos and Aryans, who had superior and enlightened governments, and "stagnant nationalities" – Eastern and Southern Europeans – who needed authoritarian governments to control them.
At Princeton he created academic departments but otherwise downplayed the Germanic model of the PhD-oriented research university in favor of the "Oxbridge" (Oxford and Cambridge) model of intense small group discussions and one-one-one tutorials. He hired 50 young professors, called preceptors, to meet with students in small conferences, grilling them about their reading. Complaining that Princeton was dominated by "eating clubs" in which students ate with each other and ignored the professors, he sought to build Oxford-style colleges where students and faculty would eat and talk together. He failed—the eating clubs are still there.[12]
Wilson promoted the leadership model, whereby the college focused on training a small cadre of undergraduates for national leadership, "the minority who plan, who conceive, who superintend," as he called them in his inaugural address as the university's president. "The college is no less democratic because it is for those who play a special part." He confronted the dean of the graduate school, who had the German research model in mind and outmaneuvered Wilson by obtaining outside funding for a graduate complex for serious scholarship that was well separated from the fun-loving undergraduates.
Political theory
Political Science
Wilson made significant contributions to political science.[13] In 1885 he published his influential treatise Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, based on his PhD dissertation. It set a new standard in analyzing the actual workings of the federal government with striking clarity and thoroughness. The citizen must "marry his interests to the state." Wilson, therefore, dismissed the Declaration's assertion that rights are endowed by our Creator. Wilson lectured that, "If you want to understand the real Declaration of Independence, do not repeat the preface." "The rhetorical introduction," he declared, "is the least part of it."
Although Wilson had never visited Congress, his emphasis on the centrality of committees in Congress was a major contribution to the study of political science. Noting how the Constitution's separation of powers had been eroded since the Civil War by the increasing power of Congress, he suggested a remedy for this in a cabinet-style government of the variety proposed by Walter Bagehot in Britain. By criticizing the Constitutionalist and Federalist traditions that had characterized American politics for a century, and showing their faults, Wilson sought to open a serious debate on the political changes in the United States in the intervening century and whether the Constitution remained an adequate regulator of these. By the time he wrote Constitutional Government in the United States (1908), Wilson was advocating the need for constitutional reform that would make Congress and president more representative and, above all, the need for a strong president who could influence Congress rather than submit to it. In Constitutional Government, Wilson creates the idea that the Constitution is a living and breathing document.[14]
Wilson originated the notion that political parties, besides running campaigns, need to be responsible for clearly designed public policies, which they present to the electorate for approval. The key to responsibility was the presidency. Hegelian conceptions of monarchy strongly influenced Wilson, and his view of public opinion contrasted sharply with the Madisonian view of factionalism. Consequently, Wilson viewed parties as primarily the machinery through which strong leaders interpret and pursue the public will.[15]
Deeply alarmed by labor and agrarian radicalism in the 1890s, Wilson resolved to cleanse the Democratic Party of Populist influence. His political vision ultimately sought to adapt American society to the new economic conditions of the 20th century, chiefly defined by the magnification of corporate power.
Public administration
- See also: The Study of Administration and Administrative State
Wilson was a founder of the study of public administration by political scientists. Wilson believed in a strong, active role for the central government and as president succeeded in establishing legislation that significantly enlarged its regulatory powers. With the publication of Congressional Government in 1885, Wilson established himself as a leader of the political reform movement of the day. The book was the first of its kind to analyze policymaking by the central government and to provide recommendations for changing the process. Wilson was one of the three most prominent public administrationists of the 1880s and 1890s. As an academician, he promoted a separate department for the study of public administration and wrote 'The Study of Administration' (1887), the first published essay by a university scholar on the subject, established Wilson as the leading authority in the field.
During the next year he inaugurated a course in public administration at Johns Hopkins University, providing three 6-week lecture series arranged in a 3-year cycle. In 1889, Wilson published a textbook, The State, and, in 1891, he began at Hopkins a new 3-year course which was a further significant step in the development of the study of administration. He was one of the first scholars to realize fully that all government was ultimately to be administration.[16]
Philip Dru
On November 16,[17] 1912,[18] President-elect Wilson took a trip to Bermuda. For the trip, he was given a copy of Philip Dru: Administrator[19] by his adviser Edward House[20] for his reading pleasure.[21] Describing the similarities between Woodrow Wilson and Philip Dru, Franklin K. Lane, who served as Secretary of the Interior for seven years, made the following observations:
|Colonel House's Book, Philip Dru, favors it, and all that book has said should be, comes about slowly, even woman suffrage. The President comes to Philip Dru in the end. And yet they say that House has no power....[22]
Wilson as president of Princeton, and Theodore Roosevelt as president of the United States, took an intense interest in the controversy over the reform of college football. In the 1890s and early 1900s, college football faced sharp of criticism over injuries and the role of athletics in college life. Roosevelt and Wilson, loyal followers of Harvard and Princeton, had defended football in the 1890s. In the fall of 1905, however, President Roosevelt called a conference of football experts at the White House to discuss brutality and unsportsmanlike conduct. Thereafter, Roosevelt worked behind the scenes to bring about sufficient reform to preserve football and ensure that it would continue to be played at Harvard. In the years 1909-10, when college football again faced an injury crisis, Wilson worked with the presidents at Harvard and Yale to make reasonable reforms. Both Roosevelt's and Wilson's approaches were consistent with their strategies for national political change. In the years that followed the reforms on the gridiron, football evolved rapidly into the 'attractive' game that Wilson had advocated and a far less brutal game than the unruly spectacle that Roosevelt had tried to control.[23]
Many Civil War veterans were still alive and Wilson used the memory of the War to build nationalism and to facilitate reunion between the North and the South. In his academic work and public comments, Wilson stressed the theoretical and constitutional causes of the war, devaluing the slavery issue and stressing the moral equality of North and South, all in the interest of lessening sectional animosity. During World War I and the struggle for the League of Nations, Wilson frequently drew comparisons between Lincoln and the Union's sacrifices to save the nation and American soldiers' sacrifices during World War I to save the world. He succeeded in overcoming Southern isolationism by convincing the middle class in the region that God had preserved the Union in the Civil War in order to spread democracy throughout the world. He appealed to Southerners to demonstrate the patriotism that many said they lacked. He was able to convince them that they could wage war for democracy abroad without endangering white supremacy at home.[24]
Wilson despised post-Civil War Southern Reconstruction, which promoted African-American participation in public life. "The white men of the South," he wrote in his History of America, "were aroused by the mere instinct of self-preservation to rid themselves, by fair means or foul, of the intolerable burden of governments sustained by the votes of ignorant Negroes and conducted in the interest of adventurers." As president, Wilson re-segregated the federal government.
Progressive governor
As early as 1906 Wilson came under the influence of Colonel George Harvey (1864-1928), a Democrat who owned a publishing empire that included the New York World and Harper's Weekly magazine, reaching the nation's intellectual elite. Harvey, with close ties to Wall Street and J. P. Morgan, saw a future president and promoted Wilson heavily. Wilson became the intellectual leader of the anti-Bryan, anti-Populist wing of the Democratic Party. Harvey helped convince the old-fashioned bosses in New Jersey's cities to make Wilson the Democratic nominee for governor in 1910, explaining this would bring in the middle class vote. Wilson, frustrated at Princeton, made the move and was elected. Wilson then broke with the bosses, and Harvey, denounced Wall Street and the bosses, and electrified the nation with his Progressive reforms in the notoriously corrupt government of New Jersey. Wilson by 1912 had emerged as the cleanest, most religious, best known and most dynamic leader of the Progressive Movement in the Democratic Party.
George Harvey was the first person to recommend Wilson for the presidency.[25][26]
Election of 1912
William Frank McCombs, a New York lawyer and a friend from college days, instigated and managed Wilson's campaign for president in 1912. Much of Wilson's support came from the South, especially from young progressive professionals. Wilson managed to maneuver through the complexities of local politics. For example, in Tennessee the Democratic Party was divided on the issue of prohibition. Wilson was progressive and sober, but not a dry, and appealed to both sides. They united behind him to win the presidential election in the state, but divided over state politics and lost the gubernatorial election.[27]
At the convention deadlock went on for over 40 ballots as a two-thirds vote was needed. A leading opponent was House Speaker Champ Clark, a prominent progressive strongest in the border states. Other contenders were Judson Harmon of Ohio, and Oscar Underwood of Alabama. They lacked Wilson's charisma and dynamism. Clark was supported by publisher William Randolph Hearst, a leader of the left-wing of the party. The critical role was played by William Jennings Bryan, the nominee in 1896, 1900 and 1908, who blocked the nomination of any candidate who had the support of 'the financiers of Wall Street.' He finally announced for Wilson, who won on the 46th.[28]
In the three-way contest, Wilson received fewer popular votes than the Democrat loser William Jennings Bryan did in 1896. Some historians however believe that Wilson's election was a defining moment in American history. The former political science professor's views on government and human nature (and the relationship to the state) became the foundations of Democratic Party statism. Historians agree that Wilson had a dark side with a strong dislike of immigrants, particularly Catholics and African-Americans.
Initially, Wilson enjoyed the support of some black leaders, including W.E.B. DuBois. Wilson's speeches and letters expressed sentiments as a defender of the generic underprivileged. However the rejoicing over Wilson's victory was short-lived among blacks as segregationist white Southerners took control of Congress and Wilson appointed many to executive departments.[29]
In the campaign Wilson promoted the "New Freedom," emphasizing limited federal government and opposition to monopoly powers—positions that he reversed on coming to office.
President William Howard Taft defeated ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in a bitter contest for the Republican nomination, but Roosevelt walked out of the Republican convention and ran as a third party candidate. Wilson's success in the electoral college was assured, despite his 41.8% of the popular vote.[30]
President: 1913-21
Taking advantage of a deep split in the GOP, the Democrats took control of the House in 1910 and elected the segregationist Woodrow Wilson as president in 1912 and 1916. In his first year in office, Wilson permitted his Treasury and the Post Office to begin efforts to segregate the federal workforce, particularly in the Columbia District. It was often carried out surreptitiously. Yet Wilson condoned it and tried to duck its implications in a manner we would describe today as slimy. Wilson ordered Jim Crow segregation in all federal government facilities in Washington DC, wiping out 50 years of social progress that African-Americans made under Republicans. No longer could blacks and whites work together in government offices, eat in the same cafeterias, our use the same bathrooms. The Wilson administration went a step further. Through the Treasury Department's Office of the Architect, the bureau charged with construction and maintenance of federal buildings, federal buildings throughout the nation were ordered to furnish segregated bathrooms, even in Northern states were practices as such were virtually unknown.[31]
First term
In his first year in office, Wilson permitted his Treasury and the Post Office to begin efforts to segregate the federal workforce, particularly in the Columbia District. It was often carried out surreptitiously. Yet Wilson condoned it and tried to duck its implications in a manner we would describe today as slimy. He also curtailed minority appointments to executive, diplomatic, and judicial positions.
Those latter numbers weren't large — about 30 — but they were posts traditionally reserved for black Americans. The signal was terrible, even if it's unclear that those black appointments would have met approval from a Senate controlled by Southern Democrats. Estimates reckon that between 15,000 and 20,000 black civil service employees, 6% of the federal workforce, were impacted by the administration's actions.[32]
Domestic policy
Wilson successfully led Congress to a series of Progressive laws, including a reduced tariff, stronger antitrust laws, the Federal Reserve System, hours-and-pay benefits for railroad workers, and outlawing of child labor, raising wages for adults. Furthermore, constitutional amendments for prohibition and woman suffrage were passed in his second term. In effect, Wilson laid to rest the issues of tariffs, money and antitrust that had dominated politics for 40 years.
In 1915 the epic Hollywood film, Birth of a Nation was released with its portrayal of black men, many played by white actors in blackface, as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as an heroic force.[33][34] It was the first American motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by Wilson, members of his cabinet, and their families.[35] In a letter to the White House press secretary the author of The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan which the film is based,[36] wrote:
|"The real purpose of my film was to revolutionize Northern sentiments by a presentation of history that would transform every man in the audience into a good Democrat...Every man who comes out of the theater is a Southern partisan for life!"[37]
In a letter to President Wilson, Thomas Dixon Jr., who authored the book and screenplay, boasted:
|"This play is transforming the entire population of the North and the West into sympathetic Southern voters. There will never be an issue of your segregation policy".[37]
Dixon was alluding to the fact that Wilson upon becoming president in 1913 had imposed segregation on federal workplaces in Washington D.C. while reducing the number of black employees through demotion or dismissal.[38]
Wilson twice vetoed the Burnett Immigration Restriction Bill, which required a literacy test for immigrants and would have sharply reduced the number of poor immigrants from Poland, Italy and other parts of eastern and southern Europe. As a moderate progressive, Wilson believed southern and eastern European immigrants, though often poor and illiterate, to be capable of assimilation into a homogeneous middle class with other whites. He considered so-called hyphenated immigrants unacceptable because they acted as groups rather than blending into the common population. Indeed, he denounced the hyphenates. Wilson sought to achieve American strength through unity, blending together the best characteristics of every nationality to create the ideal citizenry, opposing Henry Cabot Lodge's nativist view that American civilization must be based on an Anglo-Saxon foundation. Immigration from Europe practically ended when the war began, so the issue was postponed ino the 1920s, when a quota system was set up to keep the country's ethnic balance unchanged.[39]
Foreign Policy
The extremely violent civil war that broke out in Mexico in 1911 drove hundreds of thousands of refugees north across the border, and forced Wilson to intervene. Francisco Madero, an idealistic reformer who came to power in 1911. Madero tried to violently upend the social order in Mexico by destroying the landed aristocracy and the Catholic Church. When Madero was overthrown and murdered by Victoriano Huerta in February 1913, days before Wilson took office, he refused to recognize the new Mexican government. Relations deteriorated between the two countries. After American sailors were arrested in Tampico in April 1914 by Huerta's soldiers, the armed conflict loomed. American soldiers occupied Vera Cruz. In July 1914 Huerta fled to Spain. In 1916 the civil war between warlords Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa continued, and in March Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico, killing 20 Americans.[40] Wilson sent Brigadier General John J. Pershing deep into Mexico to capture Villa. Villa escaped the Americans. Despite the demands of outraged senators, Wilson did not declare war on Mexico. He ran for reelection in 1916 on the slogan, "He kept us out of war," meaning out of a war with Mexico.
Woman suffrage
In the 1910s, suffragists campaigned for the passage of a federal constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. They argued it would purify politics because the new voters would be far less liable to corruption and saloon influences. The movement was led by Protestant northern women, many of whom were active in the prohibition movement at the same time. Wilson, originally opposed to the amendment, was converted through the efforts of women suffragists and became an advocate of critical importance. Both the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the National Women's Party (NWP) used symbolic representations of President Wilson, conferring on him real or symbolic images of presidential power. In practice Wilson hedged, realizing that male Democrats in the big city machines in the North and in the rural South were hostile to woman suffrage. The meaning of democracy was at issue: the NWP portrayed Wilson as a tyrant, the NAWSA depicted him as a champion of freedom. Both organizations played essential roles in the passage of the 19th Amendment. After 1919, the absence of a common goal was a contributing factor to the subsequent divisions within the woman's rights movement, as was the loss of a unique adversary.[41]
Second term
Entering the war
Domestic policy
Wilson established the Committee on Public Information to disseminate approved information, and nationalized the railroads under the control of the United States Railroad Administration.
Foreign Policy
Wilson's commitment to the principle of self-determination affected his decision to intervene in Russia in 1918, as the Bolsheviks (Communists) took power. Unswayed by British, French, and Japanese pressure, Wilson insisted that, unless the Russians invited them, the Allies should not interfere with Russia's internal affairs. In the summer of 1918, the president sent American troops into Siberia with the sole purpose of protecting Czechoslovak soldiers who had broken out of POW camps and were an independent force. Later Wilson realized that the other Allied nations were using the rescue mission as an 'anti-Bolshevik' crusade and for imperialistic motives. As a result, the president ordered US forces to withdraw. Wilson and subsequent presidents until 1933 refused to recognize the new Communist government, and Russia was not invited to the Paris Peace Conference.[42]
In November 1917, Wilson endorsed the pro-Zionist Balfour Declaration issued by Britain. Wilson's aims in this endorsement were both practical and religious. His deep Christian sentiment led him to seek 'a direct governing role in the Near East in the name of peace, democracy and, especially, Christianity. By agreeing to the use of the mandate system by which the transition governments of the Middle East were partially controlled by Britain and France after the war, Wilson was both contradicting and reaffirming his own ideals by allowing only limited self-determination of Middle-Eastern peoples while assuring some respect for property and order.[43]
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
President Wilson was present at the Post-World War I Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first President to ever visit Europe whilst in Office.
When President Wilson left for Europe in 1919 to establish a new world order at the 1919 Versailles Conference, European Catholics were justifiably concerned about the treatment their former homelands would receive from the victorious allies. Along with Prime Ministers David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom and Georges Clemenceau of France, the three were collectively known as the Big Three and met and discussed the peace treaties that would shape post-war Europe. President Wilson pushed for terms that were not too harsh on the already war-crippled Germany, though the British and French leaders pushed for the infamous 'War Guilt Clause' that declared Germany guilty of the war and forced her to pay harsh reparations. To save his League of Nations, Wilson abandoned his mighty rhetoric and ideals at Versailles and managed to alienate almost every Catholic by surrendering to the demands of the vengeful leaders of the victorious allies. He planted the seeds of World War II when he rearranged the boundaries of Eastern Europe without regard for the ethnic or religious origins of millions of people.
Wilson particularly pushed for the League of Nations to be created, a precursor to today's United Nations.
Fight for the League
After the Paris Peace conference, Wilson came home to try to convince the Senate to ratify the treaty which would create the League. But on September 26, 1919, Wilson came home from a series of speeches he was making around the country, because of a series of strokes he had suffered which left him debilitated.[44]
In 1920, during the time period of which Wilson was incapacitated, Wilson's wife Edith allowed for Louis Seibold of the New York World to conduct an interview with Wilson. Seibold, along with Edith Wilson and Wilson's Chief of Staff Joseph Patrick Tumulty, produced a fabricated interview for which Seibold won a Pulitzer Prize in 1921.[45]
After the war
After the conclusion of World War I and the closing year of the Wilson presidency, there was a sharp depression, which many historians have decided not to write about.
Wilson and religion
A Presbyterian of deep religious faith, he appealed to a gospel of service and infused a profound sense of moralism into Wilsonianism.[46]
Link finds that Wilson from his earliest days had imbibed the beliefs of his denomination - in the omnipotence of God, the morality of the Universe, a system of rewards and punishments and the notion that nations, as well as man, transgressed the laws of God at their peril.[47] Blum (1956) argues that he learned from William Gladstone a mystic conviction in the superiority of Anglo-Saxons, in their righteous duty to make the world over in their image. Moral principle, constitutionalism, and faith in God were among the prerequisites for alleviating human strife. While he interpreted international law within such a brittle, moral cast, Wilson remained remarkably insensitive to new and changing social forces and conditions of the 20th century. He expected too much justice in a morally brutal world which disregarded the self-righteous resolutions of parliaments and statesmen like himself. Wilson's triumph was as a teacher of international morality to generations yet unborn.[48] Daniel Patrick Moynihan sees Wilson's vision of world order anticipated humanity prevailing through the "Holy Ghost of Reason," a vision which rested on religious faith.[49]
Wilson was a Presbyterian elder and the son of a leading theologian. He read the Bible daily; he felt 'sorry for the men who do not read the Bible every day.' The Bible, he argued, was 'the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life.' Wilson was prone to make explicitly Christian claims about his nation, even excluding the word Judeo from his characterization of the nation's religious heritage. 'America was born a Christian nation,' he explained in a speech on "The Bible and Progress" in 1911: "America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."[50]
He held that the Bible "is the one supreme source of revelation, the revelation of the meaning of life, of the nature of God and the spiritual nature and need of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation."[51]
God was central in Wilson's life and thought. His profound Presbyterian style of thinking assured him that he was following God's guidance. Wilson personified American optimism and considered the United States a Christian nation destined to lead the world. He was a prophet and a postmillenarian, and if idealism clashed with reality, he was certain idealism would prevail. He saw himself as God's messenger and statesman in a divinely predestined nation; thus he saw himself as God's agent in promoting democracy and world peace. His Fourteen Points and his Covenant of the League of Nations, were, in his view, divinely inspired paths to achieving a new world order.[52]
Throughout his presidency Wilson had rocky relations with Roman Catholics. When Wilson recognized the Mexican government of President Venustiano Carranza, many Catholics were livid. The Catholic hierarchy forcefully complained that the United States should not support a government that restricted the public practice of Catholicism. The Jesuit magazine America condemned Wilson and described Carranza "as a villain, destroyer, liar and murderer."
Wilson objected to the new wave of Catholic immigrants coming through the gates of Ellis Island. He wrote that there was "an alteration in stock which students of affairs marked with an uneasiness." The sturdy European stocks, according to Wilson, were being replaced by "men of the lowest class from the south of Italy and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence."
During the 1912 campaign, the American Association of Foreign Language newspapers struck a blow at Wilson: "No man who has an iron heart like Woodrow Wilson, and who slanders his fellowmen, because they are poor and many of them without friends when they come to this country seeking honest work and wishing to become good citizens, is fit to be President of the United States."
These charges appeared to have had an effect. A poll of 2,300 Catholic priests in major inner-city Catholic strongholds revealed that 90 percent of the Italian and 70 percent of Polish priests intended to vote for Bull Moose candidate Theodore Roosevelt.
China policy
Wilson's discussions with Presbyterian missionaries visiting Princeton shaped his diplomacy toward China. Wilson viewed Christianity as a unifying force in the world and the Chinese Revolution of 1911 as the first step toward the spread of Christianity and democracy for China. Wilson gained the admiration of the missionaries and Chinese when he prohibited US participation in a European loan to China. He moved to recognize the government of Yuan Shih-k'ai, hoping that that regime could bring stability to China favorable to the introduction of Christianity. He sought to appoint an ambassador to China who could express Christian values. During World War I, missionaries successfully urged Wilson's opposition to Japanese demands on China. Although the war and its aftermath diverted Wilson from Chinese problems, his foreign policy continued to be influenced by missionaries, particularly Dr. Samuel I. Woodbridge and the Reverend Charles E. Scott.[53]
Living Constitution and statism
Also see Woodrow Wilson's lasting impact on the U.S. Constitution: Seventeenth Amendment
Wilson argued for a "Living Constitution" that "must be Darwinian in structure and in practice." Government for him was "not a machine but a living thing. . . .It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its task, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life." He noted that the Framers "followed Newton" as they created the Constitution, making a comparison to planets in orbit around the sun. Interestingly enough, the Framers used that same analogy during the Constitutional Convention.[54][55]
Wilson believed that the citizen must "marry his interests to the state." Wilson, therefore, dismissed the Declaration's assertion that rights are endowed by our Creator. Wilson lectured that, "If you want to understand the real Declaration of Independence, do not repeat the preface." "The rhetorical introduction," he declared, "is the least part of it."
Wilson also rejected the premise described in the Federalist Papers, that checks and balances are needed because human nature is flawed and does not improve. He viewed the entire premise as outdated and a relic of a prior age, noting that "though they were written to influence only the voters of 1788, still, with a strange, persistent longevity of power, shape the constitutional criticism of the present day, obscuring much of that development of constitutional practice which has since taken place."[56]
Political philosopher Ronald Pestritto has observed that for Wilson, "the separation of powers, and all other institutional remedies that the founders employed against the danger of faction stood in the way of government's exercising its powers in accord with the dictates of progress."
Wilson advocated a new international order founded on self-determination, democracy, unfettered international commerce, and a worldwide organization of states - the League of Nations. Wilson framed American participation in the war as the first step in ending all wars. Although 'Wilsonian nationalism' has been blamed for the nationalistic emphasis on race and territory in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, Wilson's policies had actually used ethnic and territorial issues to encourage self-determination and the development of democracy in postwar nations.
Woodrow Wilson's most lasting political philosophy was his view that democracy should be installed around the world. As a major player in setting the terms to end World War I, he helped to break up the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to advance his goal of installing democracy for each ethnic subpopulation. Similar independence was granted with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Many of these new nations were receiving self-determination for the first time in centuries. Wilson's view of installing democracy worldwide has since been copied by the neoconservatives. Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to start the League of Nations.
Historians have been fascinated by Wilson and have vigorously defended him (Link) or attacked him (New Left). Since the collapse of the Communism in Europe in 1989, the mood had shifted in Wilson's favor. Even George Kennan, a harsh critic who favored "realism" against Wilson's idealism has changed his tune. The New Left attacks represented by Lloyd Gardner's highly critical A Covenant with Power have given way to Thomas Knock's laudatory To End All Wars. The leftist tendency to trace back to Wilson a tradition of economic self-seeking and arrogant interventionism has yielded to a new impulse to see Wilsonian diplomacy as having established "a new American agenda for world affairs," as Akira Iriye writes, built upon "the ideas of economic interdependence and of peaceful settlement of disputes."[57]
In recent years, a new generation of conservative historians highly focused on the roots of Progressivism, have become intensely critical of Wilson due to his key position in the early years progressive ideology.[58][59][60][61]
- Congressional Government, (1885)
- George Washington, (1896)
- On Being Human, (1897)
- The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics, (1898)
- A History of the American People, (1902, five volumes)
- Constitutional Government in the United States, (1908)
- The New Freedom, (1913)
- When A Man Comes To Himself, (1915)
- The Study of Administration, (1887)
- Leaders of Men, (1890)
- "If America is not to have free enterprise, then she can have freedom of no sort whatever."[62]
- "Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it."[63]
- "We are in these latter days apt to be very impatient of literal and dogmatic interpretations of constitutional principle."[64]
- "Any man who can survive by his brains, any man who can put the others out of the business by making the thing cheaper to the consumer at the same time that he is increasing its intrinsic value and quality, I take off my hat to, and I say: 'You are the man who can build up the United States, and I wish there were more of you.'"
- "America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."[65]
See also
- Brands, H. W. Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 (2003) excerpt and text search 169pp; good short summary by scholar
- Cooper, John Milton. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), 720 pp. major new biography by leading scholar
- Cooper, John Milton. The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt (1985), fascinating double biography by leading scholar excerpt and text search
- Hofstadter, Richard. "Woodrow Wilson: The Conservative as Liberal" in The American Political Tradition (1948), ch. 10. influential essay; at ACLS E-books
- Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson" in Henry F. Graff ed., The Presidents: A Reference History (2002) pp 365–388
- Link, Arthur Stanley. Wilson: The Road to the White House (1947), first volume of standard biography (to 1917); Wilson: The New Freedom (1956); Wilson: The Struggle for Neutrality: 1914-1915 (1960); Wilson: Confusions and Crises: 1915-1916 (1964); Wilson: Campaigns for Progressivism and Peace: 1916-1917 (1965), the last volume of standard biography; online at ACLS E-Books
- Maynard, W. Barksdale. Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency (2008) excerpt and text search
- Walworth, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson 2 Vol. (1958); Pulitzer prize winning biography vol 1 online; well-written but old-fashioned (it was written in the 1950s), it has been replaced by Cooper (2009).
Domestic affairs and ideas
- Abrams, Richard M. "Woodrow Wilson and the Southern Congressmen, 1913-1916," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Nov., 1956), pp. 417–437 in JSTOR
- Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992), covers domestic and foreign policies; liberal tone
- Cooper, John Milton. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), 720 pp.
- Cuff, Robert D. "Woodrow Wilson and Business-Government Relations during World War I," Review of Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1969), pp. 385–407 in JSTOR
- Curti, Merle. "Woodrow Wilson's Concept of Human Nature," Midwest Journal of Political Science, Vol. 1, No. 1 (May, 1957), pp. 1–19 in JSTOR
- Daniel, Marjorie L. "Woodrow Wilson--Historian," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Dec., 1934), pp. 361–374 in JSTOR
- Dimock, Marshall E. "Woodrow Wilson as Legislative Leader," The Journal of Politics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Feb., 1957), pp. 3–19 in JSTOR
- Link, Arthur S. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1954), remains the standard history of his first term.
- Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson: The American as Southerner," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Feb., 1970), pp. 3–17 in JSTOR
- Link, Arthur S. "Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party," Review of Politics, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 146–156 in JSTOR cover 1913-14
- Livermore, Seward W. Woodrow Wilson and the War Congress, 1916-1918 (1966)
- Macmahon, Arthur W. "Woodrow Wilson as Legislative Leader and Administrator," American Political Science Review, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Sep., 1956), pp. 641–675 in JSTOR
- Malin, James C. The United States after the World War (1930)
- Pestritto, Ronald J. ed. Woodrow Wilson and the roots of modern liberalism (2005) ISBN 0742515176' argues Wilson subverted the ideas of the Founders by his progressivism
- Pietrusza, David 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents New York: Carroll & Graf, 2007.
- Saunders, Robert M. In Search of Woodrow Wilson: Beliefs and Behavior (1998)
- Turner, Henry A. "Woodrow Wilson and Public Opinion," Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter, 1957-1958), pp. 505–520 in JSTOR
- Wolgemuth, Kathleen L. "Woodrow Wilson and Federal Segregation," The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 158–173 in JSTOR
- Weinstein, Edwin A., James William Anderson and Arthur S. Link. "Woodrow Wilson's Political Personality: A Reappraisal," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 93, No. 4 (Winter, 1978-1979), pp. 585–598 at JSTOR
- Wolfe, Christopher. "Woodrow Wilson: Interpreting the Constitution," Review of Politics, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jan., 1979), pp. 121–142 in JSTOR
- Woodward, Carl R. "Woodrow Wilson's Agricultural Philosophy," Agricultural History, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Oct., 1940), pp. 129–142 in JSTOR
Foreign policy
- Ambrosius, Lloyd E., "Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies," Diplomatic History, 30 (June 2006), 509–43.
- Bailey; Thomas A. Wilson and the Peacemakers: Combining Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace and Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (1947)
- Clements, Kendrick, A. Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman (1999)
- Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1992), covers foreign policy
- Clements, Kendrick A. "Woodrow Wilson and World War I," Presidential Studies Quarterly 34:1 (2004). pp 62+.
- Cooper, John Milton. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009), 720 pp.
- Davis, Donald E. and Eugene P. Trani; The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations (2002)
- Greene, Theodore P. ed. Wilson at Versailles (1957)
- Henderson, Peter V. N. "Woodrow Wilson, Victoriano Huerta, and the Recognition Issue in Mexico," The Americas, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Oct., 1984), pp. 151–176 in JSTOR
- Knock, Thomas J. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1995)
- Kimitada, Miwa. "Japanese Opinions on Woodrow Wilson in War and Peace," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 22, No. 3/4 (1967), pp. 368–389 in JSTOR
- Levin, Jr., N. Gordon Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution (1968)
- Link, Arthur Stanley. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917 (1972) summarizes diplomatic history
- Link, Arthur S.; Wilson the Diplomatist: A Look at His Major Foreign Policies (1957)
- Link, Arthur S.; Woodrow Wilson and a Revolutionary World, 1913-1921 (1982)
- Magee, Malcolm D. What the World Should Be: Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy (2008) excerpt and text search
- May, Ernest R. The World War and American Isolation, 1914-1917 (1959)
- Trani, Eugene P. "Woodrow Wilson and the Decision to Intervene in Russia: A Reconsideration." Journal of Modern History (1976). 48:440—61. in JSTOR
- Walworth, Arthur. Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 online edition
- Clements, Kendrick A. "The Papers of Woodrow Wilson and the Interpretation of the Wilson Era", The History Teacher, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Aug., 1994), pp. 475–489 in JSTOR
- Seltzer, Alan L. "Woodrow Wilson as 'Corporate-Liberal': Toward a Reconsideration of Left Revisionist Historiography," Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 183–212 in JSTOR
- Steigerwald, David. The Reclamation of Woodrow Wilson? Diplomatic History; 1999 23(1): 79-99, on foreign policy in EBSCO; notes that New Left revisionism (by William Appleman Williams and N. Gordon Levin, Jr.) claiming that Wilson's Open Door was a facade for the imperialistic extension of American economic advantage, has faded away
- Watson, Jr., Richard L. "Woodrow Wilson and His Interpreters, 1947-1957," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Sep., 1957), pp. 207–236 in JSTOR, summarizes different interpretations as of 1957
- Extensive essay on Woodrow Wilson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
Primary sources
- Pestritto, Ronald J. ed. Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings (2005)
- Link, Arthur S., ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson complete in 69 vol, at major academic libraries. Annotated edition of all of WW's letters, speeches and writings plus many letters written to him
- Tumulty, Joseph P. Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him (1921) memoir by chief of staff online edition
- Wilson, Woodrow. The New Freedom (1913) 1912 campaign speeches online edition
- Wilson, Woodrow. Why We Are at War (1917) six war messages to Congress, Jan- April 1917
- Wilson, Woodrow. Selected Literary & Political Papers & Addresses of Woodrow Wilson (3 vol 1918 and later editions)
- Wilson, Woodrow. Messages & Papers of Woodrow Wilson 2 vol (ISBN 1-135-19812-8)
- Wilson, Woodrow. The New Democracy. Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Other Papers (1913-1917) 2 vol 1926 (ISBN 0-89875-775-4)
- Wilson, Woodrow. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (1918).
- full text of Wilson books and messages online
- ↑ http://home.comcast.net/~sharonday7/Presidents/AP060301.htm
- ↑ Woodrow Wilson: Big Government Anti-Catholic
- ↑ http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_KlDf-Wgoc
- ↑ In the 1880s Joseph Wilson argued at length that evolution was NOT in conflict with the Bible; he was thereupon forced out as head of the Presbyterian seminary in South Carolina. See Fred Kingsley Elder, Woodrow: Apostle of Freedom (1996) online review
- ↑ Francis P. Weisenburger, "The Middle Western Antecedents of Woodrow Wilson," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Dec., 1936), pp. 375-390 in JSTOR
- ↑ See White House biography of Ellen Louise Axson Wilson
- ↑ Edward S. Corwin, "Woodrow Wilson and the Presidency," Virginia Law Review, Vol. 42, No. 6 (Oct., 1956), pp. 761-783 in JSTOR. It was published in a journal edited by Henry Cabot Lodge, who became Wilson's bitter enemy in 1919.
- ↑ The Shaping of a Future President's Economic Thought
- ↑ W. Barksdale Maynard, Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency (2008)
- ↑ Henry Wilkinson Bragdon, Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (1967)
- ↑ Yale and Harvard later did adopt the college model for undergraduates, but not Princeton. W. Barksdale Maynard, Woodrow Wilson: Princeton to the Presidency (2008)
- ↑ he also wrote popular history of high quality, including a five-volume history of the United States and a life of George Washington.
- ↑ Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy
- ↑ Scot J. Zentner, "President and Party in the Thought of Woodrow Wilson," Presidential Studies Quarterly; 1996 26(3): 666-677, in JSTOR
- ↑ Richard J. Stillman, II, "Woodrow Wilson and the Study of Administration: A New Look at an Old Essay," American Political Science Review, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 582-588 in JSTOR; Larry Walker, "Woodrow Wilson, Progressive Reform, and Public Administration," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Autumn, 1989), pp. 509-525 in JSTOR
- ↑ (2014) Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson's Silent Partner. Oxford University Press, i-ii. ISBN 978-0195045505.
- ↑ (2002) Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House. Simon and Schuster, 398. ISBN 978-0743211581.
- ↑ (2006) Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House. Yale University, 7. ISBN 978-0300137552.
- ↑ (2014) Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson's Silent Partner. Oxford University Press, 78. ISBN 978-0195045505.
- ↑ (1965) Woodrow Wilson. Houghton Mifflin Company, 288.
- ↑ (1922) The Letters of Franklin K. Lane, Personal and Political. Houghton Mifflin Company, 297.
- ↑ John S. Watterson, III, "Political Football: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and the Gridiron Reform Movement," Presidential Studies Quarterly 1995 25(3): 555-564 in JSTOR
- ↑ Anthony Gaughan, "Woodrow Wilson and the Legacy of the Civil War," Civil War History 1997 43(3): 225-242; online in Questia; Gaughan, "Woodrow Wilson and the Rise of Militant Interventionism in the South," Journal of Southern History 1999 65(4): 771-808, in JSTOR
- ↑ Presidential Power: Unchecked and Unbalanced
- ↑ The Power of Tolerance: And Other Speeches, by George Brinton McClellan Harvey, pp. 174-178, For President: Woodrow Wilson, February 3rd, 1906
- ↑ Arthur S. S. Link, "Democratic Politics and the Presidential Campaign of 1912 in Tennessee," East Tennessee Historical Society's Publications 1979 51: 114-137
- ↑ Arthur S. Link, "The Baltimore Convention of 1912," American Historical Review 1945 50(4): 691-713 in JSTOR
- ↑ Nancy J. Weiss, "The Negro and the New Freedom: Fighting Wilsonian Segregation," Political Science Quarterly 1969 84(1): 61-79, in JSTOR
- ↑ Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics, (2008); Link (1947)
- ↑ American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow, Jerrold M. Packard, St. Martin's Press, 2003, pp. 124-125
- ↑ https://www.nysun.com/national/princetons-purge-of-wilson-follows-a-change/91174/
- ↑ MJ Movie Reviews – Birth of a Nation, The (1915) by Dan DeVore Template:Webarchive
- ↑
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- ↑ Stokes 2007, p. 111
- ↑ Franklin, John Hope "The Birth of a Nation: Propaganda as History" pages 417–434 from The Massachusetts Review Volume 20, No. 3, Autumn 1979 page 421.
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 Franklin, John Hope "The Birth of a Nation: Propaganda as History" pages 417–434 from The Massachusetts Review Volume 20, No. 3, Autumn 1979 page 430.
- ↑ Yellin, Eric S. (2013). Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson's America Template:Webarchive. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina. p. 127. ISBN 9781469607207
- ↑ Hans Vought, . Division and Reunion: Woodrow Wilson, Immigration, and the Myth of American Unity. Journal of American Ethnic History; 1994 13(3): 24-50.
- ↑ James A. Sandos, "Pancho Villa and American Security: Woodrow Wilson's Mexican Diplomacy Reconsidered," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Nov., 1981), pp. 293-311 in JSTOR
- ↑ Christine A. Lunardini, and Thomas J. Knock, Woodrow Wilson and Woman Suffrage: A New Look. Political Science Quarterly; 1980-1981 95(4): 655-671, in JSTOR
- ↑ Betty Miller Unterberger, "Woodrow Wilson and the Bolsheviks: the 'Acid Test' of Soviet-American Relations," Diplomatic History 1987, Vol. 11(2), pp.71-90.
- ↑ Frank W. Brecher, Woodrow Wilson and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. American Jewish Archives; 1987 39(1): 23-47,
- ↑ The Hidden Agony of Woodrow Wilson
- ↑ 10 journos caught fabricating, Politico
- ↑ John Morton Blum, Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality (1956); Richard M. Gamble, "Savior Nation: Woodrow Wilson and the Gospel of Service," Humanitas Volume: 14. Issue: 1. 2001. pp 4+; Cooper, Woodrow Wilson (2009) p 560.
- ↑ Arthur S. Link, "A Portrait of Wilson," Virginia Quarterly Review1956 32(4): 524-541
- ↑ John Morton Blum, Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality (1956), p p10, 197-99
- ↑ David Steigerwald, Wilsonian Idealism in America (1994) p. 230.
- ↑ Arthur S. Link, ed. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1977) 23:20, speech on the Bible, in Denver May 7, 1911
- ↑ Josephus Daniels, The Life of Woodrow Wilson 1856-1924 (1924) p. 359
- ↑ Malcolm D. Magee, What the World Should Be: Woodrow Wilson and the Crafting of a Faith-Based Foreign Policy (2008)
- ↑ Eugene P. Trani, "Woodrow Wilson, China, and the Missionaries, 1913-1921," Journal of Presbyterian History 1971 49(4): 328-351,
- ↑ Madison Debates, June 7
- ↑ Madison Debates, June 8
- ↑ Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, p. 9
- ↑ see Steigerwald,(1999)
- ↑ Woodrow Wilson and the Rejection of the Founders' Constitution
- ↑ Hating Woodrow Wilson; The new and confused attacks on progressivism, What the new Woodrow Wilson haters don't understand
- ↑ The Mystery of Woodrow Wilson
- ↑ Woodrow Wilson: Godfather of Liberalism
- ↑ James A. Henretta, "Whose Government? Politics, Populists and Progressives, 1880-1917." In America: A Concise History, Volume Two: Since 1865, Volume 2, p. 622
- ↑ Speech at New York Press Club (9 September 1912), in The papers of Woodrow Wilson, 25:124
- ↑ Constitutional Government in the United States
- ↑ Paul M. Pearson and Philip M. Hicks, Extemporaneous Speaking (New York: Hinds, Noble & Eldredge, 1912), 177, printing Woodrow Wilson, "The Bible and Progress;" The Homiletic Review: An International Monthly Magazine of Current Religious Thought, Sermonic Literature and Discussion of Practical Issues (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1911), Vol. LXII, p. 238, printing Woodrow Wilson, "The Bible and Progress," May 7, 1911.
External links


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National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
Southern Diet Might Explain the 'Stroke Belt'
Study found those who ate fried, salty foods and processed meats were more likely to have strokes
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Researchers say that diets that are heavy in fried and salty foods could be the most dangerous in terms of stroke risk.
The team conducted a nationwide survey of more than 20,000 white and black adults aged 45 and up and identified five common dietary patterns. They kept in touch with the participants over the next six to 10 years to find out which ones had a stroke.
The people who said they ate foods such as fried chicken and fried potatoes, processed meats and salty greens nearly every day were about 30 percent more likely to have a stroke than people who rarely consumed these foods.
In addition, black people and people in the southern states most frequently dined on this type of menu, which could help explain why blacks have higher stroke risks than whites and why this region of the United States is known as the "stroke belt."
"The Southern diet is probably the most commonly cited explanation that people give for stroke risk, but unfortunately, until this study was put together, there was not a way to look at a large enough sample to see," said study author Suzanne Judd, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The findings were to be presented Thursday at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting in Honolulu.
Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and there are about 800,000 strokes every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Black people are about twice as likely as whites to have a first stroke and are more likely die from a stroke.
"I tell my patients that if they're going to have fried foods, once or twice a month is OK, but avoid having more," said Dr. George Bakris, director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Hypertension Center.
Fried and other characteristically Southern foods could pack a triple punch in terms of stroke risk, Bakris explained.
High fat and sodium content could increase cholesterol and blood pressure, respectively, and diets laden with fried foods tend to be low in potassium-rich foods such as tomatoes, melons and avocados, which can counteract the effects of sodium.
"The Southern diet probably accounts for about half of the difference in stroke risk between black and white people," Bakris said. Making matters worse, black people tend to be more salt-sensitive, so a small amount of sodium could lead to big increases in blood pressure, he added.
The current study included more than 20,000 people in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Judd and her colleagues carried out surveys between 2003 and 2007, asking the participants how often and how much they consumed 108 foods and beverages.
The researchers found that people who ate some items were more likely to eat others, and grouped these items together into five dietary patterns: the Southern diet, consisting of fried and processed meats, greens, and sweetened iced tea; the convenience diet, made up of pasta, pizza and Mexican and Chinese food; the sweet diet, which is high in desserts and sweetened snacks; the plant-based diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables and legumes; and the salad and alcohol diet.
"The biggest surprise was that there was a Southern pattern," Judd said, adding that with migration and traveling she expected all regions of the United States to partake similarly in this type of diet.
Judd and her colleagues found that people in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, Michigan and Illinois were the highest consumers of the Southern diet.
There also were racial differences between the people in the top 25th percentile for Southern diet consumption, who ate these foods every day or almost every day, and those in the bottom quartile, who ate them about once a month.
Black participants made up about 58 percent of the top quartile of Southern diet consumers, even though they made up only about half of the participants in the study, Judd said. On the other hand, only about 9 percent of the bottom quartile was black participants.
Judd and her colleagues followed up with the participants twice a year after their food surveys through April 2012 to find out about their stroke history. The researchers found that people who were in the top half for consumption of the Southern diet were about 30 percent and 12 percent more likely, respectively, than those in the bottom quartile to have had a stroke.
These differences in stroke risk were found even after the researchers took into account whether they smoked, exercised or had a history of heart disease.
It remains possible, however, that other health aspects -- such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure -- were different between these groups, either because they ate more Southern diet foods or because of other lifestyle differences that could have contributed to variations in stroke risk, Judd said.
The researchers also found that a plant-based diet could protect against strokes. The participants in the top three quartiles had between 15 percent and 26 percent lower stroke risk than those who consumed only fruits and veggies about once a week, Judd said.
There did not appear to be a relationship between the other three diets and stroke risk.
Research suggests that 80 percent of strokes can be prevented, but lifestyle factors in addition to diet should also be considered, Bakris said. "There is no question that if you can exercise more and stop smoking, your stroke risk is going to be reduced dramatically," he said.
Research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until it is published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Health News Copyright (c) 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
- More Health News on:
- African-American Health
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Twentynine Palms Historical Society
29 Palms, California
Twentynine Palms Weed ShowSM
Annually, the first full weekend in November
Weed Show entry by Ada Hatch c.1950's
Click here for the 2023 Weed ShowSM Categories and Rules
The 2022 Weed Show will be open to the public from
noon to 4:00 p.m. on Sat (Nov 4) and
10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sun (Nov 5).
Just What Is The Weed ShowSM?
The Weed Show is one of Twentynine Palms' oldest and most unique artistic traditions. This annual display, now in its seventh decade, features artistic arrangements of indigenous desert vegetation as well as found objects both natural and man-made - a desert rendition of the traditional concept of floral display. Each show follows a specific theme. Entries are judged on subject matter, use of desert vegetation, use of accessories, artistic composition and originality. Awards are granted in nine categories, with a "people's Choice" award to be decided by visitors to the exhibition.
The show's roots go back to July 1940, when the Women's Club of Twentynine Palms invited Pasadena printmaker Mildred Bryant Brooks to deliver a lecture on "The Art of Etching." Legend has it that the local ladies, ever mindful of etiquette, were deeply embarrassed by the lack of fresh flowers with which to decorate the podium and honor their esteemed guest. The ladies of the club expressed their apologies to Brooks, who is then reputed to have said, "Why do you need fresh flowers when you have so many beautiful weeds?" The ladies then dispatched two of their members to gather sun dried desert flora from the grounds of the Twentynine Palms Inn, which they brought back for Brooks to arrange.
The Weed ShowSM made its official debut the following year in 1941. Initially held in private homes, its popularity soon grew to the point where it became a bona fide community event. After the Women's Club disbanded in 1976, sponsorship of the show passed to the Twentynine Palms Gardening Club then when the Gardening Club disbanded, the Historical Society revived the show which has been going strong ever since.
It is one of Twentynine Palms most characteristic events. The Weed ShowSM highlights the beauty of the local flora and the skill of our town's artisans, and the history and culture of Twentynine Palms itself.
What Is A Weed?
A definition by Pat Rimmington
The dictionary defines a weed as (1) a plant that grows wild and (2) a plant not valued for use or beauty.
It is true that the flora used by the competitors in this 74 year old Twentynine Palms show are the native plants that grow wild on the Mojave Desert.
However, these plants were essential to the existence of the Native American tribes (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi and Serrano) who inhabited this desert region. Nature provided the food and medicine, as well as the materials used for basket weaving, hunting equipment and for building shelters.
The displays in the Weed ShowSM aim to bring out the often over-looked, hidden beauty of the local vegetation in a whole new light.
Previous Years Photos and Info
Photos of the 2008 winning entries
Photos of entries from 1950's – 2007
Please support our
Business Members
Get Involved | Young Historian | Board of Directors | Research | O.S.H. Journal | School Tours | Events Calendar | Lectures | Weed ShowSM | Old Timers Gathering | Historic Sites | Hastie Bus | Generations | Homesteaders | Engraved Bricks | Displays | Gift Shop | President's Message | Articles | Photos | Links | Contact Us | Site Map
© 2008-2023 Twentynine Palms Historical Society. All rights reserved. Web hosting contributed by LazyPalm.com


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Favorite Four: Freemium City/Village Builders
Freemium city-building games have been hugely popular on the App Store for nearly as long as the App Store has been around. With their trickle feeding approach to progress, and that temptation to spend real money to expand one's virtual empire, it's no wonder that everyone ends up intrigued. Like any genre, though, there are good and bad examples. I take a look at four of my favorite city or village builders.
CityVille Hometown
The mighty behemoth of Zynga starts us off, courtesy of the rather charming CityVille Hometown. Players focus on building up their town, keeping the residents happy and getting new people involved. There's a little bit of everything here with decorating, farming and business growth all playing a part. Keeping things focused on the residents gives the game a suitably homely feel.
CityVille Hometown
PLAYMOBIL Pirates
When I was a child, I adored playing with Playmobil, creating stories with the constantly happy, plastic people. PLAYMOBIL Pirates brings such fun to iOS with players able to develop their own pirate camp, recruit new members of the crew and complete a variety of fun missions. Yes, it's not city building in the conventional sense, but it's charming and cute. The allure of in-app purchases isn't too strong either, with patience fixing that problem.
PLAYMOBIL Pirates
My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic
A series that has benefited from quite a resurgence in recent times, My Little Pony transfers the city building motif to Ponyville. Usual village building techniques play a role here, but it's all backed up by a selection of mini-games which keep things more interactive than most. The cute factor is off the scale, too!
Pixel People
Quite different from the others in the list, Pixel People is more focused on the genetic splicing of people rather than village building, but it's still an important part of progression. There's charm aplenty here, plus immediately accessible yet addictive gameplay, with players combining characters to create new ones. It'll take quite a while to collect every single one of the over 200 characters, as well as some careful thought, but it's terrific fun along the way.


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A leaked trailer shows that Capcom is readying a new entry in its Lost Planet series. The Lost Planet 3 trailer shows a frozen tundra, reminiscent of the the earlier game's settings.
11 Minutes Of Cozy Railway Planning In Station To Station
The CGI heavy trailer, however, shows more snow, more bugs, and more giant mechas—and more giant mechas fighting giant bugs.
The game is headed to the PS3 and Xbox 360. According to the trailer, Lost Planet 3 is being developed by Spark Unlimited, the studio behind shooters Legendary and Turning Point: Fall of Liberty.
More details are expected shortly.