We the People

 

Jill Lepore, We the People: A History of the United States Constitution, (NY: Liveright Publishing Co., 2025) 581 pages

We the People begins with an introduction establishing America’s 18^th century colonists expected constitutions will be amendable. Toward the end of this 22 page introduction author Lepore explains the “book is a history of American constitutionalism as told through a collection of stories about constitutional change.” It relies on an archive of every significant proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution, assembled as part of a personal project of the author.

The book has four parts with each part subdivided into three, or once four, chapters. Parts follow in chronological order with Part I from 1774 to 1791; Part II 1803-1896; Part III 1905-1959; Part IV 1961-2016. A brief epilogue ends the book.

Part I opens with the First Continental Congress in September 1774 when the colonies sent delegates to draft a constitutional document to replace British colonial government with a system of self-government. Lepore takes readers through state conventions drafting and attempting to ratify their constitutions and then to the drafting of the 1781 Articles of Confederation.  Narrative continues with the arguments writing our U.S. Constitution at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the difficulties getting it ratified, and the ultimate drafting and adoption of the bill of rights.

Small groups drafted these many constitutions and then made them public hoping to get them ratified, but mostly they got a torrent of criticism and demands to change them. Opposition to slavery was strong and attempts to end it and define the rights of blacks brought lots of arguments, as did the constitutional status of women and Indians. When the delegates that worked through the summer of 1787 finished their work, there were renewed demands for amendments. Since their new constitution included Article V detailing an amendment process, James Madison convinced opponents they could amend after ratification. He succeeded in getting the constitution ratified as originally written by condensing the many proposals into ten amendments put at the end of the constitution as the Bill of Rights.

In 1787 it was not obvious amending the constitution would be as hard as it has turned out to be. In each of the remaining three parts Lepore has pages with lists of proposed amendments made as part of political party platforms. The lists provide topics for narrating the repeating demands for change by formal amendment, for narrating alternative constitutional interpretations and for reviewing Supreme Court rulings on constitutional disputes brought to it.

Part II has a thorough discussion of controversies over citizenship, the 1843 Seneca Falls women’s rights conference, voting rights, the nullification claims of John C. Calhoun and the claims of Chief Justice John Marshall to make the Supreme Court the final arbiter of constitutional disputes. Discussion of many Supreme Court cases and their influence on law and politics begin here with Marbury v. Madison and continues through the narrative where readers meet more justices with new views and new cases, often contesting and reinterpreting disputes.

The narrative considers the legal and constitutional chaos of the Civil War and reconstruction. Members of Congress proposed many amendments as a hope to avert war. One, the Corwin Amendment, would have prohibited amendments to abolish slavery. It would come again in March 1956 as the “Lost Amendment.” There is a thorough discussion of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments and the effort to define citizenship and guarantee civil rights to all. Lepore considers the controversies over rights to self government for those living in U. S. territories, especially Hawaii and Hawaiians, but also Chinese, Japanese and American Indians.

The Part III period 1905-1959 included the amendments 16 through 19 ratified from 1913 to 1920, where three of the four amendments – income tax, prohibition, and women’s suffrage – came after decades of protest. An amendment to abolish child labor began appearing on party platforms in this era, mostly as a response to the Supreme Court refusal to allow it; it failed. Lepore gives a thorough review of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, the protest that followed and demands to repeal it by defiance or amendment.

In the Part IV years 1961-2016 readers meet Indiana Senator Birch Bayh who took over the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1963. He convinced the country and the Congress to ratify amendment 24, 25 and 26 and almost succeeded abolishing the electoral college via another amendment. It was an era of well funded interest groups which brought an unprecedented number of Article V applications for constitutional conventions. Lepore explores a variety of amendment proposals for the right to life, school prayer, a balanced budget, busing, campaign finance, Indian rights and the controversies over judicial appointments. There follows another lengthy discussion of women’s rights and the ERA that includes the efforts of Patsy Takemoto Mink, Phyllis Schlafly and Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, along with a review of gay rights, black rights and calls for significant changes to the constitution.

The last chapter before the epilogue features the life and career of Justice Antonin Scalia during the years he served on the Supreme Court: 1986-2016. Featuring Scalia appears to be a device to narrate the polarizing jurisprudence of a period when constitutional amendments became impossible. Since Scalia left a trail of academic writing and did not hesitate to give speeches, conduct seminars and offer his judicial views in television interviews, his claim our constitution had an original intent to guide jurisprudence free from politics and personal preference generated significant public argument in these years. Lepore narrates these arguments, emphasizing Scalia’s gun rights opinion in D.C. v. Heller, which captures the hypocrisy of it all.

In her brief epilogue Lepore reminds us our founding fathers believed in reason and progress, but mentions “outdated constitutions undermine democratic governance.” Then she questions if there is a point beyond which a constitution cannot be stretched but breaks. Our Constitution feels obsolete, to be charitable. In We the People Lepore makes it feel much worse than obsolete. By covering events from 1774 to the present Lepore establishes the same disputes occur and then recur as unresolved politics from one century to the next: women and minority rights to wit. Powerful interests have repeatedly exploited the undemocratic features of our constitution to block and stall and impose their will without regard to compromise or democracy or public welfare as the many events Lepore narrates here so clearly prove. Legislation is hard enough to pass in our bicameral Congress, but given the Supreme Court expects to nullify laws passed by an elected Congress, disputes that could and should be resolved with legislation become amendment proposals instead: abortion to wit. Since Article V makes amendment difficult to impossible, change comes to a halt while protest continues or returns in a new generation. The book fully captures the rambling, hurtling cycles of anger, frustration and chaos in a perpetually polarized country. In the 21^st century money alone governs America, where our outdated constitution undermines democratic governance.

Labor Line

May 2026_________________________ 

Labor line has job news and commentary with a one stop short cut for America’s job markets and job related data including the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

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The BLS Establishment Job Report with data released May 8, 2026.

Commentary From This Month’s Establishment Jobs Press Report

NOT SO BAD, NOT SO GOOD

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its May report for jobs in April. The Household Survey for April shows the civilian population increased by only 97 thousand, the third month in a row under 100 thousand. The labor force declined by 92 thousand, which equals a decrease of the employed by 226 thousand and an increase of the unemployed by 134 thousand. Those not in the labor force increased by 189 thousand, or a combination of 92 thousand leaving the labor force and the 97 thousand population increase that did not enter the labor force. The decrease in the labor force was enough to offset the increase in the unemployed to keep the unemployment rate at 4.3 percent. The labor force participation rate declined .1 percent to 61.8 percent, a very low rate.

The seasonally adjusted total of establishment employment was up 115 thousand for April. The increase was 113 thousand more jobs in the private service sector combined with an increase of 10 thousand jobs from goods production. The total of 123 thousand new jobs in the private sector combined with a(n) decrease of 8 thousand government service jobs accounts for the total change.

Goods production increased by a net 10 thousand jobs. Natural resources increased 3 thousand jobs and construction added 9 thousand new jobs, but less than last month. Non-residential building and non-residential specialty trade contractors had most of the jobs; heavy and engineering construction had a small increase. Manufacturing had a net loss of 2 thousand jobs with 2 thousand more durable goods jobs and a net 4 thousand decrease in non-durable goods production. Primary metals and fabricated metal products had 3.4 thousand new jobs, but no other durable goods did well with automobile manufacturing down 3 thousand jobs.  Non-durable goods production did poorly. Food processing and chemical manufacturing had a few new jobs, but no non-durables manufacturing sub sectors did well.

Government service employment decreased 8 thousand jobs, same as last month. The federal government lost 9 thousand jobs. State government jobs were up 1 thousand but local government had no change in total jobs. State and local government jobs excluding education increased 4.6 thousand. State public education was up 1.3 thousand jobs; local government education went down 4.9 thousand jobs. Private sector education dropped 7.8 thousand jobs, which brings the total for education to a decrease of 11.4 thousand seasonally adjusted jobs.

Trade, transportation and utilities took first place for private service sector job gains with 60 thousand more jobs with both wholesale and retail trade adding jobs: wholesale up 6 thousand, retail up 21.8 thousand. Transportation had 30.3 thousand new jobs, but 37.9 thousand new jobs came in the couriers and messengers sub sector with a net loss of jobs in modal transportation; transit transportation jobs were down 7.5 thousand. Utilities added 1.9 thousand jobs, after last month’s increase.

Health care had a net gain of 54 thousand jobs, well down from last month. All four of the health care subsectors added some jobs with ambulatory care adding 18.2 thousand jobs; hospitals were up 4.3 thousand jobs; nursing and residential care added 14.8 thousand jobs. Social assistance services added 16.6 thousand jobs including 24.0 thousand new jobs coming in individual and family services offset by other social service job losses. The growth rate for health care was down from last month to 2.72 percent, but still above the average of 2.27 percent per month of the last 15 years.

Professional and business services were up a net of only 7 thousand jobs, a little better than recent months. The professional and technical service sub sector was up a net 11.9 thousand jobs; management of companies was off another 3.5 thousand jobs. The third sub sector, administrative and support services including waste management, lost 1.4 thousand jobs.

Among professional and technical services, architecture and engineering services had 3.9 thousand new jobs and legal services had an unusual gain of 2.4 thousand new jobs. Computer systems and design services had a thousand new jobs, but no other of the professional services did well. Among administrative support services, temporary help services added 7.9 thousand jobs. Otherwise investigation and security services had 4 thousand new jobs but services to buildings were off 6.3 thousand jobs among other small changes.

Leisure and hospitality added 14 thousand jobs. The arts, entertainment and recreation sub sector had 12.3 thousand new jobs with performing arts and spectator sports adding 8.2 thousand of the jobs. Accommodations jobs were down 15 thousand offset by 17.2 thousand more restaurants jobs.

Information services declined 13 thousand jobs with motion picture and sound recording down 6 thousand jobs; telecommunications were down another 2.5 thousand jobs. Broadcasting added a thousand jobs but all other information services lost jobs. Finance and real estate lost a net 11 thousand jobs, a little less than last month. Finance and insurance lost 5.6 thousand of the jobs where insurance carriers lost 9.1 thousand jobs offset with some modest gains in securities and investments. Real estate lost 1.7 thousand jobs and jobs in rental and leasing services were down 3.6 thousand jobs as well. The other services category had 10.5 thousand more jobs where personal and laundry services had 8.5 thousand of the jobs while repair and maintenance services dropped 1.3 thousand jobs; non-profit associations added 3.3 thousand jobs.

The economy added 115 thousand jobs for April. Establishment employment in April was reported as 158.736 million with an annual growth rate of .87, half a decent growth rate. Health care and transportation had 91.9 thousand jobs of the 115 thousand total increase. The transportation increase came in the couriers and messengers sub sector where just under half the jobs are driving trucks for long distance and local delivery.

Otherwise the jobs report returned to the typical monthly changes from 2025 where professional and technical services, education, information, finance and real estate, leisure and hospitality and trade, transportation and utilities have April 2025 over April 2026 job declines. New jobs this month went for health care and truck driving and very little else. This month’s job total is only 251 thousand above April a year ago and 1.206 million jobs above April two years ago.  The 251 thousand number remains extremely low for a year of new jobs.

April Details 

Jobs

Total Non-Farm Establishment Jobs up 115,000 to 158,736,000

Total Private Jobs up 123,000 to 135,428,000

Total Government Employment down 8,000 to 23,308,000 Note 

Civilian Non-Institutional Population up 97 thousand to 274,955,000

Civilian Labor Force down 92 thousand to 169,995,000

Employed down 226 thousand to 162,622,000

Employed Men down 104 thousand to 85,007,000

Employed Women down 122 thousand to 77,615,000

Unemployed up 134 thousand to 7,373,000

Not in the Labor Force up 188 thousand to 104,959,000

Unemployment Rate stayed the same at 4.3% 7,373/169,995

Labor Force Participation Rate went down .1% to 61.8%, or 169,995/274,955

Summaries by Industry

Non Farm Total +115

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Non-Farm employment for establishments increased from March by 115 thousand jobs for a(n) April total of 158.736 million. (Note 1 below) An increase of 115 thousand each month for the next 12 months represents an annual growth rate of +.87% The annual growth rate from a year ago beginning April 2025 was +.16%; the average annual growth rate from 5 years ago beginning April 2021 was +1.87%; from 15 years ago beginning April 2011 it was +1.26%. The higher five year growth rate derives from the low Pandemic employment. America needs growth around 1.5 percent a year to keep itself employed.

Sector breakdown for 12 Sectors in 000’s of jobs 

1. Natural Resources +3

Natural Resources jobs including logging and mining increased 3 thousand from March with 606 thousand jobs in April. An increase of 3 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +5.97 percent.   Natural resource jobs were down 16 thousand from a year ago. Jobs in 2000 averaged around 603 thousand with little prospect for growth.  This is the smallest of 12 major sectors of the economy with .4 percent of establishment jobs.

2. Construction +9

Construction jobs were up 9 thousand from March with 8.321 million jobs in April. An increase of 9 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.30 percent.  Construction jobs are up 50 thousand for the 12 months just ended. The growth rate for the last 15 years is 2.82%. Construction jobs rank 9th among the 12 sectors with 5.3 percent of non-farm employment.

3. Manufacturing -2

Manufacturing jobs were down 2 thousand from March with 12.596 million jobs in April. A decrease of 2 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.19 percent.  Manufacturing jobs were down for the last 12 months by 66 thousand. The growth rate for the last 15 years is +.50%. Manufacturing ranks 6th among 12 major sectors in the economy with 7.9 percent of establishment jobs.

4. Trade, Transportation & Utility +60

Trade, both wholesale and retail, transportation and utility employment were up 60 thousand jobs from March with 28.724 million jobs in April. An increase of 60 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +2.51 percent. Jobs are down by 59 thousand for last 12 months. Growth rates for the last 15 years are +.96 percent. Jobs in these sectors rank first as the biggest sectors with combined employment of 18.1 percent of total establishment employment.

5. Information Services -13

Information Services employment was down by 13 thousand jobs from March with 2.773 million jobs in April.  (Note 2 below)  A decrease of 13 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of –5.60 percent. Jobs are down by 92 thousand for the last 12 months. Information jobs reached 3.7 million at the end of 2000, but started dropping, reaching 3 million by 2004 but has stayed close to 3.0 million in the last decade. Information Services is a small sector ranking 11th of 12 with 1.8 percent of establishment jobs.

6. Financial Activities -11

Financial Activities jobs were down by 11 thousand jobs from March to 9.134 million in April. A decrease of 11 thousand jobs for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -1.45 percent. Jobs are down by 86 thousand for the last 12 months.  (Note 3 below) This sector also includes real estate as well as real estate lending. The 15 year growth rate is +1.15 percent. Financial activities rank 8th of 12 with 5.8 percent of establishment jobs.

7. Business and Professional Services +7

Business and Professional Service jobs went up 7 thousand from March to 22.445 million in April. An increase of 7 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.37 percent. Jobs are down 165 thousand for the last 12 months. Note 4 The annual growth rate for the last 15 years was +1.77 percent. It ranks as 2nd among the 12 sectors now. It was 2nd in 1993, when manufacturing was bigger and third rank now with 14.1 percent of establishment employment. 

8. Education including public and private -11

Education jobs were down 11 thousand jobs from March at 14.860 million in April. A decrease of 11 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.62 percent. These include public and private education. Jobs are down 53 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 5) The 15 year growth rate equals +.62 percent. Education ranks 5th among 12 sectors with 9.4 percent of establishment jobs.

9. Health Care +54

Health care jobs were up 54 thousand from March to 23.809 million in April. An increase of 54 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +2.72 percent. Jobs are up 657 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 6)  The health care long term 15-year growth rate has been +2.27 percent lately compared to +2.72 percent for this month’s jobs. Health care ranks 2nd of 12 with 15.0 percent of establishment jobs.

10. Leisure and hospitality +14

Leisure and hospitality jobs were up 14 thousand from March to 16.978 million in April.  (note 7) An increase of 14 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.99 percent. Jobs are down 4 thousand for the last 12 months. More than 80 percent of leisure and hospitality are accommodations and restaurants assuring that most of the new jobs are in restaurants. Leisure and hospitality ranks 4th of 12 with 10.7 percent of establishment jobs. It moved up to 7th from 4th in the pandemic decline.

11. Other +10

Other Service jobs, which include repair, maintenance, personal services and non-profit organizations were up 10 thousand from March to 6.032 million in April. An increase of 10 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.99 percent. Jobs are up 45 thousand for the last 12 months. (Note 8) Other services had +.81 percent growth for the last 15 years. These sectors rank 10th of 12 with 3.8 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

12. Government, excluding education -4

Government service employment went down 4 thousand from March at 12.472 million jobs in April. A decrease of 4 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of –.42 percent. Jobs are down 246 thousand for the last 12 months.  (note 9) Government jobs excluding education tend to increase slowly with a 15 year growth rate of +.33 percent. Government, excluding education, ranks 7th of 12 with 7.9 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

Prices and inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all Urban Consumers was up by a monthly average of 2.9 percent for 2025. 

The CPI May report for the 12 months ending with April shows the 

CPI for All Items was up 3.8% 

CPI for Food and Beverages was up 3.1% 

CPI for Housing was up 3.6% 

CPI for Apparel was up 4.2% 

CPI for Transportation including gasoline was up 7.1% 

CPI for Medical Care was up 2.5% 

CPI for Recreation was up 2.3% 

CPI for Education was up 2.8% 

CPI for Communication was down 2.0% 

Sector Notes__________________________

(1) The total cited above is non-farm establishment employment that counts jobs and not people. If one person has two jobs then two jobs are counted. It excludes agricultural employment and the self employed. Out of a total of people employed agricultural employment typically has about 1.5 percent, the self employed about 6.8 percent, the rest make up wage and salary employment. Jobs and people employed are close to the same, but not identical numbers because jobs are not the same as people employed: some hold two jobs. Remember all these totals are jobs. back

(2) Information Services is part of the new North American Industry Classification System(NAICS). It includes firms or establishments in publishing, motion picture & sound recording, broadcasting, Internet publishing and broadcasting, telecommunications, ISPs, web search portals, data processing, libraries, archives and a few others.back

(3) Financial Activities includes deposit and non-deposit credit firms, most of which are still known as banks, savings and loan and credit unions, but also real estate firms and general and commercial rental and leasing.back

(4) Business and Professional services includes the professional areas such as legal services, architecture, engineering, computing, advertising and supporting services including office services, facilities support, services to buildings, security services, employment agencies and so on.back

(5) Education includes private and public education. Therefore education job totals include public schools and colleges as well as private schools and colleges. back

(6) Health care includes ambulatory care, private hospitals, nursing and residential care, and social services including child care. back

(7) Leisure and hospitality has establishment with arts, entertainment and recreation which has performing arts, spectator sports, gambling, fitness centers and others, which are the leisure part. The hospitality part has accommodations, motels, hotels, RV parks, and full service and fast food restaurants. back

(8) Other is a smorgasbord of repair and maintenance services, especially car repair, personal services and non-profit services of organizations like foundations, social advocacy and civic groups, and business, professional, labor unions, political groups and political parties. back

(9) Government job totals include federal, state, and local government administrative work but without education jobs. back

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Notes

Jobs are not the same as employment because jobs are counted once but one person could have two jobs adding one to employment but two to jobs. Also the employment numbers include agricultural workers, the self employed, unpaid family workers, household workers and those on unpaid leave. Jobs are establishment jobs and non-other. back

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Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn

Christopher Cox, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, (NY: Simon & Shuster, 2024), ISBN 978-1-6680-1078-5

This new biography of Woodrow Wilson gets its subtitle from the first line of the John Greenleaf Whittier poem “Ichabod.”

So Fallen! So lost! The light withdrawn

Which once he wore!

The Glory from his gray hairs gone

Forevermore!

Biographies of presidents typically emphasize their time in office and the political events they pursue, but this biography concentrates on racial and gender discrimination during Woodrow Wilson’s life and how he addressed them before and after he became president The book covers 495 pages with the narrative partitioned into four parts. Part I begins with a summary discussion of the early crusade against slavery and women’s suffrage movement before turning to Wilson’s 1856 birth, early life, education, a brief year practicing law, marriage and accepting faculty posts teaching at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University; he accepted the Princeton Board’s offer to be their president in June 1902.

Other Wilson biographies write extensively of his legislative record: the Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and progressive income tax, but none of that appears in this Cox biography. Instead, the narrative through the book emphasizes the documented record of Wilson’s personal relations with family and friends and with university scholars and politicians, both his supporters and detractors. Beginning with his academic years he published books of history and politics in 1885, 1889, 1893, 1897, and 1902. Cox scoured these works and Wilson’s other writing, archival letters, relationships, and associations. The narrative returns repeatedly to the published record of his racial views and his decades long opposition to woman’s suffrage.

The chapters of Part I offer a sampling of Woodrow Wilson’s views during Reconstruction and the early Jim Crow south. He predicts the right to vote without regard to race would “make the ‘disintegration of southern society’ and the ‘irretrievable’ alienation of ‘the white men of the South,’ its ‘real leaders.’” In his History of the American People he explained “It is ‘the mere instinct of self-preservation’ that forced ‘the white men of the South’ to do everything within their power to restore white supremacy ‘by means fair or foul.’”  Wilson’s apologizes for the Ku Klux Klan admitting “the Klansmen ‘took the law into their own hands,’ but undertook ‘by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot.’” He concluded the Klan was “really ‘for the mere pleasure of association, for private amusement.’” Cox provides a thorough narrative of his discomfort and unlikely appointment to teach at Bryn Mawr, a women’s college. Bryn Mawr documents an early episode of a long trail of evidence documenting Wilson’s refusal to accept women as equals.

Part II offers a discussion of him as Princeton President, elected Governor of New Jersey and first term as president. His years in politics forced him to take positions and make decisions on race and woman’s suffrage rather than write or ventilate about them. Cox quotes Wilson as telling his gubernatorial campaign manager he was “definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage” and that “woman’s place was in the home.” His writing and documented decisions find him opposed to admitting black men to Princeton, opposing unions, opposing immigrants and purging the federal government of black employees while arranging to have the racist film “Birth of a Nation” shown at the White House.

Available evidence permits Cox to give readers an idea of Wilson in his personal life. Hundreds of letters survive to and from his two wives, Ellen Axxon and Edith Galt, and a third relationship with Mary Peck Hulbert. In letters to Ellen, he wrote “Marriage alone was a woman’s ‘essential condition’ for the performance of her ‘proper duties.’” Readers learn Wilson leaves on vacations without Ellen such as one to Bermuda where he meets Mary Peck and starts an indeterminate relationship of eight years documented with 700 letters. We learn of the personal Wilson, a man of “immutable routines,” who enjoys taking afternoon drives and plays golf as part of his daily schedule, finishing 1,200 rounds of golf as president.

Part III, entitled Holding Back the Tide, covers December 1916 to December 1917, a period that energized the Women’s suffrage movement with intensified political pressure to secure national voting rights. Cox covers their campaign thoroughly. Readers meet many women, the groups they organize and the protest marches and demonstrations they conduct. During this period, Wilson reversed his pledge to keep America out of WWI. He prevailed on Congress to declare war to make the world “Safe for Democracy” while simultaneously demanding to silence opposition to American entry into WWI in a well-documented campaign of repression and censorship. During this period the war became an excuse for Wilson to repress and censor woman demonstrating for voting rights. Cox narrates Wilson’s deliberate use of arrest, intimidation and violence to end street protest that included periods of physical abuse in jails and forced feeding of hunger strikers.

Part IV has the remaining years of his second term. By this time women had the right to vote in 13 states, including New York, increasing the political risk to Democratic party opponents of voting. Then Republicans took over the House and Senate in the November 1918 election. When WWI ended November 11, Wilson insisted on going to Paris to negotiate the peace treaty and establish a League of Nations instead of staying home to confront domestic turmoil, especially passing a federal budget, inflation and violent race riots. Cox tells the remaining story of Wilson maneuvering within his administration and his posturing in the House and Senate in the political fight to secure voting rights for woman. Cox gives details of the Congressional debate and final votes in June 1919. Tennessee became the last state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Amendment that finally became part of the U.S. Constitution August 18, 1920. The narrative ends here, or rather just stops.

Over many years I have read dozens of biographies of Presidents including Woodrow Wilson. None I know of leave out so much of their political record to focus on the man and the ethical principles that drive their decisions and their conduct as this biography. Any illusion that Woodrow Wilson was a confident, accepting and fair-minded gentleman disappears in this Cox biography. The glory from his gray hairs gone. Forevermore!