Woodrow Wilson Analysis

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There are many similar themes found when comparing the two books by Heckscher and Cooper. Heckscher wrote a persuasive biography arguing how strong and overall successful Woodrow Wilson was as our national leader. By devoting his life to studying the matter, Heckscher’s opinion was significantly respected by a great number of people. Heckscher strived to show that the strengths of Wilson combined with his strong, determined personality allowed his to be a great leader up until his sickness “destroyed” everything that he had worked hard to achieve. Cooper on the other hand used Wilson’s weaknesses to criticize him. In Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, Cooper expresses his views concerning Wilson’s worst behavior. For example, Cooper often stressed throughout the book that, “he wanted to restrict voting right to white men, not…show more content…
Although they were both writing the same this their view are so different they are describing one person with two completely different sides. On side portrays Wilson as a strong successful leader up until his downfall and the other describes Wilson as a weak, self-minded leader who brought our country down with him. After reading a majority of both books, I view Wilson as a strong leader who was simply rough around the edges. Along with his faults Wilson also made many great contributions to our country. Since the views of Heckscher and Cooper are completely different so are their intentions for the books. Heckscher’s thesis was that, “Wilson was a strong leader who used his strengths and his durable personality and character to make him an overall great leader.” This opposes Cooper’s thesis which showed Wilson ran our country in a selfish way trying to contribute more for himself then the people. Cooper’s greatest point was when Wilson had a stroke, he was to self-absorbed in himself to even recognize he was unable to continue being president and have a positive effect on the
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