Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

BOOK REVIEWS - John C. Chalberg: August Heckscher: Woodrow Wilson. Macmillan, 1991. 734 pp

Princeton undergraduate education in the hands of freshly minted products of American highher education. By the fall of 1905 more than forty "preceptors" had been recruited, leading Heckscher to conclude that "no college faculty has ever received at one stroke so dramatic an infusion of new blood." But Wilson's remaining four years (not unlike the second term of his second presidency) were far less successful. And, as would be the case in 1919, physical problems contributed to his political decline. On May 28, 1906, President Wilson awoke to find himself blind in his left eye. The loss of vision was initially attributed to a burst blood vessel, stemming from general hypertension; but subsequent authorities have concluded that this was the first of a series of small strokes, all of which were precursors to his collapse in the midst of the struggle to ratify the Versailles Treaty in the fall of 1919. Whatever the exact cause of his illness, the Woodrow Wilson who presided over Princeton after the spring of 1906 displayed "not only a different side of his character but at critical moments (made) painful errors of judgment". Gone too frequently was the gentle, demonstrably affectionate Wilson. In its place was the "irascible" Wilson, who "never forgot that he was the son of Presbyterians." Unwilling to bend, unable to admit defeat, this Woodrow Wilson was, but his own words, "a thorough Presbyterian," and one who often felt, in Heckscher's words, "called to prove it." For the remainder of his life the oscillation between these two Wilsons continued unabated. Other torments in Wilson's private life had begun to surface as well. Subject to mystifying bouts of depression which had long bedeviled the Axson family, Ellen Wilson a year earlier had suffered a shock from which she would never fully recover. In late April of 1905 her favored younger brother, his wife, and their two-year old son were drowned in a tragic ferry accident. In her grief and depression Ellen Wilson abruptly abandoned her role as Princeton's First Lady and gradually withdrew from her husband. In his confusion and resentment Woodrow Wilson retreated to Bermuda in the winter of 1907. There he sought rest and rejuvenation, while she remained in Princeton, much "like the fixtures in the house." 155