The Illusion of Victory: Americans in World War I

The political history of the American experience in WWI is a story of conflict & bungled intentions that begins in an era dedicated to progressive social reform & ends in the Red Scare & Prohibition. Fleming tells this story thru the complex figure of Woodrow Wilson, the contradictory president who wept after declaring war, devastated because he knew it would destroy the tolerance of the American people, but who then suppressed freedom of speech & used propaganda to excite America into a Hun-hating mob. This is tragic history: inexperienced American military leaders drove their troops into gruesome slaughters; progressive politics were put on hold in America; an idealistic president's dreams were crushed because of his own negligence. Wilson's inability to convince Congress to ratify US membership in the League of Nations was one of the most poignant failures in the history of the presidency, but even more heartrending were Wilson's concessions to his bitter allies in the Treaty of Versailles. In exchange for Allied support of the League of Nations, he allowed an unfair peace treaty to be signed, a treaty that played no small role in the rise of National Socialism & the outbreak of WWII. Fleming has once again created a masterpiece of narrative American history. This incomparable portrait shows how Wilson sacrificed his noble vision to megalomania & single-mindedness, while paying homage to him as a visionary whose honorable spirit continues to influence Western politics.