Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856 and grew up in the post-Civil War South. A scholar of government, he became president of Princeton University and then governor of New Jersey, where he gained a reputation as a reform Democrat. Elected president in 1912 after the Republican split between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson entered office promising a New Freedom agenda.

His domestic program reshaped economic governance. Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, creating the modern central banking system, and supported the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission. During his presidency, the Sixteenth Amendment authorized the federal income tax, and the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the vote was ratified in 1920 after years of suffrage activism.

World War I transformed Wilson’s presidency. He initially pledged neutrality, but German unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram helped push the United States into war in 1917. Wilson framed the conflict as a war for democracy and later proposed the Fourteen Points, including the League of Nations, as a basis for postwar peace.

Wilson’s final years were defined by his passionate campaign for the League of Nations, a vision he believed would prevent future wars. Though the Senate rejected U.S. membership, Wilson’s idealism shaped international law and diplomacy for generations. He left office in 1921 and died in 1924.