The Educational Legacy of Woodrow Wilson: From College to Nation

Woodrow Wilson on Liberal Education for Statesmanship, 1890–1910

Woodrow Wilson on Liberal Education for Statesmanship, 1890–1910 Adam R. Nelson T hroughout his years at Princeton, first as a professor and later as president, Woodrow Wilson asked one central question: how, in an era of rapid change, could the university prepare students for lives of national service, or, as he often called it, statesmanship? This question framed Wilson’s sesquicentennial address, ‘‘Princeton in the Nation’s Service ’’ (1896), as well as his inaugural address, ‘‘Princeton for the Nation’s Service’’ (1902). This essay traces Wilson’s struggle to answer this question from the time he joined the Princeton faculty in 1890 to the year he left the presidency in 1910. A close look at his writings during this period suggests that his perspective on both liberal education and statesmanship changed over time. What began as a critique of abstract intellectualism and ‘‘denationalized ’’ scholarship became, in the wake of the Spanish-American War, an impassioned call for a return to intellectualism and a reconceptualization of the purpose of liberal education in a global context. The modern American university, Wilson came to believe, had an urgent duty to prepare undergraduates for lives of both national and international statesmanship. Although Wilson had been a proponent of ‘‘liberal education’’ from the start of his academic career, historians and biographers have overlooked the degree to which his perspective on the meaning and purpose of liberal education changed over time. In particular, they have ignored the ways in which his views shifted from a national to an international perspective after the United States’ rise to a new role in world a√airs. This change imposed 50 Adam R. Nelson new responsibilities on the American university. More than most of his contemporaries, who called on universities to bolster electives in technical, professional, or applied scientific education to secure the United States’ military and economic supremacy, Wilson called for a prescribed literary and historical curriculum to give students the broad understanding they would need as leaders of national and international a√airs. Dismissing applied science and professional training as the province of technical schools (and state universities), he called on Princeton to forge a di√erent path. Only a revival of liberal humanistic education, he argued, could prepare a new generation of American statesmen for the di≈cult tasks of national and international leadership. Only a liberal education grounded in history, literature, politics, and ‘‘pure’’ (as opposed to applied) science could give the rising generation what he called a ‘‘statesmanship of mind.’’∞ To be sure, Wilson’s view of liberal education for statesmanship did not change suddenly after the Spanish-American War. It changed gradually as the implications of the United States’ new position in the world became clear. ‘‘Ours is a day not of national so much as of international . . . forces,’’ he had observed as early as 1891. ‘‘There is everywhere a free interchange of ideas, a wide community of intellectual and moral standards; there are common means of knowledge; there is quick intercourse and a general familiarity with the ends of the earth. No nation any longer lives apart; it is sharp give and take between the peoples of the world.’’ This new, complex, and profoundly interconnected world placed new demands on the modern university. The question was, how could the university prepare students to lead this world?≤ Surprisingly, the most prominent aspect of Wilson’s public addresses in the 1890s was their relative neglect of international concerns in favor of a focus on nationalism. He gave countless speeches on nationalism, ‘‘Americanism ,’’ and the role universities could play in cultivating patriotic leaders. Among his many addresses were ‘‘Patriotism Begins at Home,’’ ‘‘Spurious Versus Real Patriotism in Education,’’ ‘‘Patriots and Politics,’’ and ‘‘Patriotic Citizenship.’’ Crisscrossing the country, giving dozens of speeches each year, he shared his thoughts on the subject of ‘‘true Americanism’’ with audiences young and old. While di√erent speeches emphasized di√erent aspects of his theme, all stressed the need for more patriotism in American life and the role universities could play in fostering a greater sense of national enthusiasm among students as well as future leaders. Despite—or perhaps because of—the United States’ rapidly expanding role in the world, Liberal Education for Statesmanship 51 Wilson returned again and again to nationalism as the key to a stronger and more unified country.≥ In many speeches, Wilson noted the lamentable degree to which American universities had bowed in...