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
In a sence, August Heckscher has written a biography of Woodrow Wilson that is very much in keeping with America's diminished view of itself at the end of the twentieth century. The Cold War has ended and much of the world seems to be asking to be made safe for democracy. And yet America shrinks from its historic role. Providential is the opportunity, but prudential is the operative word. It may be ironic —or more likely just a quirk of history —that George Bush was born the year that Woodrow Wilson died. A product of the Good War and the American Century, Bush's political life and professional resume have been ample preparation for a Wilsonian presidency. Every internationlist gene in his body ought to command this president in the direction of a rejuvenated Wilsonianism. Instead, we have the New World Order which places a premium on stability and leader-to-leader confidentiality. As Wilson apparently sympathized with the security needs of France, so Bush claims to understand the very different security needs of the current Chinese gerontocracy. Nowhere in the George Bush order of things is there room for leadership on the order of a Woodrow Wilson before August Heckscher got hold of him. To be blunt, Heckscher has given us Woodrow Wilson as a considerably more articulate and slighly more principled George Bush, instead of the Woodrow Wilson who was never bedeviled by the charge that he lacked a "vision thing." The first Democratic president since Grover Cleveland may have been a blip on the political screen of Republican dominance in the White House, but he caused a mighty stir during his eight years in power. George Bush has had a stir fall into his lap, but he seems to have little clue as to what to do with it. The president as steward, he seems to want four more years in office. Near the end of his second term Woodrow Wilson canvassed the country to preach to Americans that the time had come to join the community of nations. Throughout his presidency George Bush has circled and re-circled the globe in search of his elusive stability and, oh yes, in search of "jobs, jobs, and jobs" for Americans. The former believed that America had something to offer the world; the latter behaves as though the 165
