Educator

He graduated from Princeton in 1879 and studied law at the Univ. of Virginia. Admitted (1882) to the bar, he practiced in Atlanta, Ga., for a year before going to Johns Hopkins to study political science and jurisprudence. In 1885, he published Congressional Government, a significant work. After receiving (1886) his Ph.D. degree, he taught history and political economy at Bryn Mawr (1885-88) and Wesleyan Univ. (1888-90).

In 1890 he became professor of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton and gained a reputation for his eloquent orations. Popular with the student body, Wilson, a descendant of Presbyterian ministers on both sides of his family, was elected (1902) president of Princeton, becoming its first nonclerical head. He strove to raise academic standards, reorganized the curriculum, and introduced the preceptorial system of instruction, which provided for more individualized education.

His attempt to change the social and living facilities by eliminating the elite eating clubs for upperclassmen and introducing the quadrangle system, where students from all of the classes would live and eat together, was less successful. It aroused great hostility, which reached a climax in his bitter struggle with the group headed by Dean Andrew F. West. Wilson lost, but with prompting from George B. M. Harvey, a New York publisher with strong connections in the Democratic party, he ran for governor of New Jersey in 1910 soon after resigning his post at Princeton.

Governor of New Jersey

With the aid of the New Jersey Democratic machine, Wilson secured the gubernatorial nomination and, breaking with the machine to espouse progressive policies, went on to win the election. Despite much resistance from the regular Democrats, Wilson forced through the New Jersey legislature such reforms as an employer's liability act, the direct primary, a corrupt-practices act, and revitalization of the state public utilities commission.

Presidency

Wilson's gubernatorial record brought him to the forefront of national politics. Although Champ Clark was the leading contender for the presidential nomination at the Democratic convention in 1912, he could not muster the necessary two-thirds vote, and after he had exhausted his strength, Wilson won on the 46th ballot. He was helped by the switch to his side of William Jennings Bryan (prompted by Edward M. House). The split in the Republican party, which divided into the regular Republicans supporting William Howard Taft and the Progressive party backing Theodore Roosevelt, gained the election for Wilson, who captured 435 electoral votes.

Wilson revived the custom, abandoned in 1801, of addressing Congress in person and immediately called for a series of reforms, which he had called the "New Freedom" in his presidential campaign. During his administration the tariff was drastically decreased (1913; see Underwood, Oscar Wilder); the Federal Reserve System was instituted (1913); the La Follette Seamen's Act, regulating labor conditions aboard ship, became law (1915); the Adamson Act, establishing an eight-hour day for railroad employees, was enacted (1916); and the Federal Farm Loan Act, providing for loans to cooperative farm associations, was passed (1916). Wilson continued the policy of curbing monopoly by creating (1914) the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and expose unfair practices of corporations, pushed the passage (1914) of the Clayton Antitrust Act, and instituted antitrust proceedings in 92 cases. The Seventeenth Amendment, providing for the direct popular election of U.S. Senators, the Eighteenth Amendment, which instituted prohibition, and the Nineteenth Amendment, by which women received the vote, were all launched while Wilson was President.

In foreign affairs the Wilson administration was faced with mounting difficulties. In Mexico, a revolution brought (Feb., 1913) Victoriano Huerta to the presidency. Wilson refused to recognize Huerta on the grounds that he had gained power by assassinating his predecessor, and instead resorted to a policy of "watchful waiting." In 1914, this policy ended when U.S. marines landed in Veracruz in retaliation for the arrest of U.S. sailors in Tampico. Mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile prevented war but failed to settle the aggravated situation. After Huerta was driven from power, new troubles arose from the internal situation in Mexico. The raid of Francisco ("Pancho") Villa across the U.S. border resulted in the punitive expedition (1916) into Mexico led by John J. Pershing. Border incidents continued, and relations between the two countries remained unfriendly. During this period, Wilson also sent U.S. troops to Haiti (1915), the Dominican Republic (1916), and Cuba (1917), and established protectorates over the first two. In his East Asian policy, notably his refusal (1913) to support loans to China by American bankers, Wilson openly rejected "dollar diplomacy."

The outbreak of World War I in Europe overshadowed all other problems. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, who scrupulously favored neutrality, resigned (1915) and was succeeded by Robert Lansing, who tended to favor intervention on the side of the Allies. Wilson during his first term nevertheless sought by all diplomatic means to maintain an impartial neutrality. American public opinion, however, increasingly mounted against Germany, and the sinking (May 7, 1915) of the Lusitania by a German submarine aroused a storm of protest. After the sinking (Mar. 24, 1916) of the American vessel Sussex, Wilson issued an ultimatum to which Germany responded with a pledge to cease its unrestricted submarine attacks. Trouble over shipping also occurred with Great Britain in its effort to enforce the blockade of Germany. In the 1916 election, the Democratic campaign slogan, "He kept us out of war," helped return Wilson to the White House; Charles Evans Hughes was defeated by a very close margin. Wilson immediately attempted to mediate between the warring nations, but without success. Relations with Germany became more and more tense, especially after the announcement (Jan. 31, 1917) by Germany of a renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare.

On Feb. 3, Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany. Several more U.S. vessels were sunk, and on Apr. 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. In his war message Wilson stated that "the world must be made safe for democracy" and that the United States would wage war for liberty and peace. War was declared Apr. 6. Wilson's speeches, elaborating his war aims, did much to consolidate U.S. opinion behind his policies as the country mobilized. In addition to the establishment of a fighting force, war industries were placed under government control and the President was given wide powers over the production and distribution of food and fuel. Late in Dec., 1917, Wilson put the railroads under government operation. The Committee on Public Information was established to propagandize for the war.

In Jan., 1918, prompted by the publication by the Bolshevik revolutionary government in Russia of secret treaties that revealed the imperialistic war aims of the Allies, Wilson presented the Fourteen Points to Congress; these outlined the basic provisions that he believed the peace settlement must cover. As the war drew to a close and preparations were begun for a peace conference, Wilson was generally looked upon in Europe as the savior of the future. In the United States, however, he suffered an electoral setback in Nov., 1918, after appealing for the return of a Democratic Congress as an endorsement of his foreign policy; the Republicans captured both houses of Congress.

Shortly afterward (December) Wilson set sail for Europe as head of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Conference; his attendance broke all American precedents. Angry at Republican criticism, Wilson did not include any active Republican, or any Senator, on the peace commission. Wilson was received in Europe with warm ovations and set about trying to create a new world society, which would be governed by the "self-determination of peoples," which would be free from secret diplomacy and wars, and, most important, which would have an association of nations to maintain international justice.

At the peace conference he became involved in long and bitter wrangles with Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, and the other representatives of European powers. The resulting treaty (see Versailles, Treaty of) was far from being the fulfillment of his dream, although he did secure the adoption of the covenant establishing the League of Nations. Wilson accepted the treaty as being the best obtainable.

At home, opposition to the League had been growing, and when Wilson returned (July, 1919) with the signed treaty, his accomplishments at Paris were received with mixed feelings. In the Senate, quarrels over the ratification of the treaty and the proposed amendments broke out immediately. In the group that emerged as opponents of the League, Henry Cabot Lodge was outstanding. Nevertheless, despite the agitation of a handful of "irreconcilables," the Senate would probably have ratified the treaty if certain reservations protecting U.S. sovereignty had been added. Wilson, however, refused to compromise and sought popular support by making a speaking tour of the United States. He was on his way east from the Pacific coast when fatigue and strain brought on a sudden physical breakdown in Sept., 1919, and forced him to cancel his trip.

On Oct. 2, 1919, the President suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him for several months. He never entirely recovered, and for the remainder of his second term, Wilson, bitterly disillusioned, was virtually detached from the political scene. It has been postulated that he was so ill that his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, made virtually all his political decisions for him. He continued to be uncompromising in his refusal to accept reservations on the League. Three years after the expiration of his term he died. His character and policies have been the subject of acrimonious debate, but even those who have doubted his wisdom have recognized him as one of the pivotal figures of American and world history. In 1920 he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his Fourteen Points and for securing the adoption of the Convenant of the League of Nations as part of the Treaty of Versailles.

Writings

Wilson's writings on history and jurisprudence include Division and Reunion, 1829-1889 (1893), George Washington (1896), A History of the American People (5 vol., 1902), and Constitutional Government in the United States (1908). These books are distinguished by a wide knowledge of constitutional law and by the severe and polished literary style that also characterizes An Old Master and Other Political Essays (1893) and Mere Literature and Other Essays (1893). Wilson's addresses, messages, and speeches, considered among the finest by an American, have been published and republished in various collections; see L. S. Turnbull, Woodrow Wilson: A Selected Bibliography of His Published Writings, Addresses, and Public Papers (1948, repr. 1971). To date, 46 volumes of the definitive edition of the Wilson papers, under the editorship of Arthur S. Link, have been published (1966-84).

Wilson's works include the 12-hour Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (1973); the five-hour Einstein on the Beach (1976, rev. 1984), a collaboration with Philip Glass and his best-known work; the day-long Civil Wars (1984), with Glass, David Byrne, and others; 1990s operatic extravaganzas (again with Glass), including White Raven and The Palace of the Arabian Nights; The Days Before: Death, Destruction, and Detroit III (1999), a collaborative multimedia meditation on the Apocalypse; and I La Galigo (2004), a three-and-a-half-hour adaptation of an ancient Indonesian epic. Working in Europe and the United States, Wilson has been a phenomenally prolific director, mounting brilliantly strange productions of various classics, including Wagner's Parsifal, Büchner's Danton's Death, Shakespeare's King Lear, and La Fontaine's Fables.

Wilson graduated to off-Broadway with the production of the full-length Balm in Gilead (1964) and moved to Broadway with The Gingham Dog (1968). In 1969 he cofounded the Circle Repertory Theatre in Greenwich Village, where, until its closing (1996), many of his plays were performed. Among these were the extremely successful The Hot l Baltimore (1972) and an acclaimed trilogy—Fifth of July (1978), Talley's Folly (1980, Pulitzer Prize), and A Tale Told (1981)—plays set in Wilson's hometown that span several decades. His later dramas include Angels Fall (1982), Burn This (1987), Redwood Curtain (1993), Book of Days (1998), and Rain Dance (2002).

After Gaitskell's death (1963), Wilson won the leadership of the party and became prime minister in 1964. At first his government had only a four-seat majority in Parliament, but it was reelected with a large majority in 1966. The Labour government under Wilson sought to offset Britain's diminishing role outside Europe by increasing its role in Europe, and in 1967 it reapplied for membership in the European Community (EC). Wilson also tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the white supremacist regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which unilaterally declared itself independent of Britain in 1965. Domestically, Wilson imposed strict controls on wages and prices, raised taxes, and devalued (1967) the pound to end the growing economic crisis. By the spring of 1970 the economy seemed to be recovering, and Wilson scheduled a June election, which resulted in an unexpected defeat for the Labour party.

In opposition, Wilson led his party to reverse its stand on entry into the EC, but a significant minority voted with the Conservative government in favor of entry. Another divisive issue arose with the party's espousal (1973) of wide-scale nationalization. Nonetheless, in the general election of Feb., 1974, held at a time of severe economic crisis, Labour was returned to power, and Wilson again became prime minister.

Despite the fact that he headed a minority government (and was therefore very vulnerable to defeat in Parliament), Wilson announced his intention of implementing the controversial policies of renegotiation of the terms of Britain's membership in the EC and nationalization. His government faced continuing economic difficulties as well as a deterioration of the situation in Northern Ireland (which required the reimposition of direct British rule). It was also obliged to mediate between Greece and Turkey in the tense crisis created by the overthrow of Archbishop Makarios III in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion of that island in July, 1974. Wilson called another election in Oct., 1974, and secured a narrow majority in Parliament. In 1975 he called and won an unprecedented referendum on Britain's membership in the EC, largely silencing left-wing Labour critics who favored withdrawal. Wilson unexpectedly resigned in 1976 and was knighted later the same year. The longest serving Labour prime minister, he retained his seat in Commons until he was created a life peer in 1983.

As a critic Wilson was concerned with the social, psychological, and political conditions that shape literary ideas. His social studies include To the Finland Station (1940), a history of the European revolutionary tradition that praises the Soviet Union (a position he soon reversed), and The American Earthquake (1958), a record of the Great Depression. His versatility is further revealed in his I Thought of Daisy (1929), a novel; Memoirs of Hecate County (1949), short stories; and Five Plays (1954). Wilson also edited F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished The Last Tycoon and posthumous The Crack-up (both: 1945). His later works include Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1955), A Window on Russia (1973), and The Devils and Canon Barham: 10 Essays on Poets, Novelists, and Monsters (1973). Wilson's third wife was the author Mary McCarthy.

After joining the Republican party in 1962 he began to champion conservative causes and enthusiastically endorsed presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964. In the California gubernatorial election of 1966 he defeated the Democratic incumbent, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown. As governor of California for two terms (1967-75), he cut state welfare and medical services and aid to public schools and higher education. He also signed a series of tax increases aimed at ending the state's deficit. Nonetheless, during his tenure California's budget more than doubled and the number of state employees increased significantly. Reagan made unsuccessful bids for the 1968 and 1976 Republican presidential nominations, losing to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, respectively. Four years later he won the 1980 nomination and, with his running mate, George H. W. Bush, resoundingly defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter.

Reagan's presidency had barely begun when he was shot by a would-be assassin, John Hinckley, Jr., on Mar. 30, 1981; he recovered completely and quickly. Advocating a balanced budget to combat inflation, he reversed long-standing political trends by successfully pursuing his supply-side economic program of tax and non-defense budget cuts through Congress (see supply-side economics). Adopting a hardline stance against the Soviet Union and other Communist countries, Reagan advocated and oversaw the largest peacetime escalation of military spending in American history; in 1983 he proposed the controversial and expensive space-based defense system known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.

After a recession in 1982, the economy picked up between 1983 to 1986, spurred largely by the tax cuts and deficit financing; on the strength of the economic rebound, the successful invasion of the Marxist-controlled island of Grenada, and his personal popularity, he defeated Democratic nominee Walter Mondale in 1984 by a landslide. Economic growth, however, remained relatively modest, although the rate of inflation dropped below 4% during his tenure. The tax cuts and the sharp increase in military expenditures resulted in a series of huge budget deficits and consequently more than doubled the size of the national debt.

Beginning in 1985, Reagan began to soften his stance toward the Soviet Union in response to signals of a new openness (see glasnost) in foreign relations under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The two leaders met four times between 1985 and 1988, when they concluded the Intermediate-Range Nuclear-Force Missile Treaty (INF treaty) which sharply reduced intermediate nuclear forces. The last years of Reagan's presidency were disrupted by the Iran-contra affair, which broke in late 1986 and involved the White House's complicity in the illegal diversion of profits from arms-for-hostage deals with Iran to the U.S.-supported contra guerrillas fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. In 1994, Reagan disclosed that he had Alzheimer's disease in hope of increasing public awareness of the illness; he died of complications from the disease a decade later.

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(born Jan. 10, 1936, Houston, Texas, U.S.) U.S. radio astronomer. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1963 and headed its Radio Physics Research Department (1976–94). With his colleague Arno Penzias, he detected the cosmic background radiation, a discovery for which the two men shared a 1978 Nobel Prize (with Pyotr Kapitsa [1894–1984], who was honoured for research unrelated to theirs).

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(born Aug. 1, 1714, Penegoes, Montgomeryshire, Wales—died May 15, 1782, Llanberis, Carnarvonshire) Welsh landscape painter. He worked as a portraitist for many years, but after a lengthy stay in Italy (1750–57) he worked almost exclusively in landscape, except for numerous drawings of Roman sites and buildings that he used in composing Italianate landscapes. A set of drawings made for Lord Dartmouth (dated 1754) show that he tempered his delicate observation of light and distance with the discipline of such 17th-century Classicists as Nicolas Poussin. The landscapes he produced after his return to Britain influenced J.M.W. Turner and John Constable.

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(born April 13, 1937, Lebanon, Mo., U.S.) U.S. playwright. He began writing plays in 1962 and became cofounder and director of the Circle Repertory Company (1969–95), a regional theatre in New York City. His plays, which are known for their experimental staging, simultaneous dialogue, and deferred character exposition, include Lemon Sky (1970), the long-running hit The Hot l Baltimore (1973), The Mound Builders (1975), Talley's Folly (1979, Pulitzer Prize), Burn This (1987), and By the Sea (1996).

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(born Sept. 14, 1742, Fife, Scot.—died Aug. 21, 1798, Edenton, N.C., U.S.) American colonial lawyer, politician, and jurist. Immigrating to North America in 1765, he taught Greek and rhetoric in the College of Philadelphia and then studied law under John Dickinson. In 1774 he published a widely read treatise proposing a commonwealth of British colonies. He was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, a delegate to the Continental Congress (1775–77), and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He helped draft the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania state constitution and delivered lectures that became landmarks in American jurisprudence. He served on the U.S. Supreme Court (1789–98).

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(born 1858?, Utah Territory, U.S.—died October 1932, Walker River Indian Reservation, Nev.) Paiute religious leader. In 1889 Wovoka announced that during a trance God had told him that his people's ancestors would rise from the dead, buffalo would return to the Plains, and the white man would vanish if the people would perform a ritual dance. This vision was the basis for the Ghost Dance, a millenarian cult that arose and quickly spread to other tribes, notably the militant Sioux. For a period of time, Wovoka was worshiped as a new messiah. After the Wounded Knee massacre, Wovoka's following dissipated and the movement contracted.

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(born June 10, 1929, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.) U.S. biologist. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he taught from 1956. Recognized as the world's leading authority on ants, he discovered their use of pheromone for communication. His The Insect Societies (1971) was the definitive treatment of the subject. In 1975 he published Sociobiology, a highly controversial and influential study of the genetic basis of social behaviour in which he claimed that even a characteristic such as unselfish generosity may be genetically based and may have evolved through natural selection, that preservation of the gene rather than the individual is the focus of evolutionary strategy, and that the essentially biological principles on which animal societies are based apply also to human social behaviour. In On Human Nature (1978, Pulitzer Prize) he explored sociobiology's implications in regard to human aggression, sexuality, and ethics. With Bert Hölldobler he wrote the major study The Ants (1990, Pulitzer Prize). In The Diversity of Life (1992) he examined how the world's species became diverse and the massive extinctions caused by 20th-century human activities. In Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) he proposed that all of existence can be organized and understood in accordance with a few fundamental natural laws.

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(born Oct. 19, 1856, Geneva, Ill., U.S.—died March 3, 1939, New York, N.Y.) U.S. cell biologist. He joined the Columbia University faculty in 1891, where he became established as a pioneer in work on cell lineage (tracing the formation of different kinds of tissues from individual cells). His interests later extended to internal cellular organization and the problem of sex determination, leading to a series of papers (1905) on the role of chromosomes. Recognizing the importance of Gregor Mendel's findings, he realized that the role of chromosomes went far beyond the determination of sex and envisioned their function as important components in heredity as a whole, ideas that were a powerful force in shaping future genetic research.

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(born Feb. 14, 1869, Glencorse, Midlothian, Scot.—died Nov. 15, 1959, Carlops, Peeblesshire) Scottish physicist. His invention of the Wilson cloud chamber, a device that became widely used in the study of radioactivity, X rays, cosmic rays, and other particle phenomena, also led to the later development of the bubble chamber. He shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with Arthur Compton.

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(born April 27, 1945, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 2, 2005, Seattle, Wash.) U.S. playwright. He was largely self-educated. A participant in the black aesthetic movement, he cofounded and directed Pittsburgh's Black Horizons Theatre (1968), published poetry in African American journals, and produced several plays, including Jitney (1982), before his Ma Rainey's Black Bottom opened on Broadway in 1984. Inspired by the colloquial language, music, folklore, and storytelling tradition of African Americans, he continued his cycle of plays, each set in a different decade of the 20th century, with Fences (1986, Pulitzer Prize), Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988), The Piano Lesson (1990, Pulitzer Prize), Two Trains Running (1992), Seven Guitars (1996), Gem of the Ocean (first produced 2003), King Hedley II (2005), and Radio Golf (first produced 2005).

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(born July 6, 1766, Paisley, Renfrew, Scot.—died Aug. 23, 1813, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. ornithologist. In Scotland he wrote poetry while working as a weaver and peddler; in 1792 his satiric works led to a fine and imprisonment. Impoverished, in 1794 he immigrated to the U.S., where he became a teacher. Influenced by William Bartram, he decided circa 1804 to write on North American birds, and he began studying art and ornithology in his leisure time. His pioneering work American Ornithology (9 vol., 1808–14) established him as a founder of the field. After publication of its first volume, he spent much of his time selling subscriptions for the expensive work and collecting specimens for the remaining volumes.

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Recessive hereditary defect (see recessiveness) that impairs one's ability to metabolize copper. In affected persons, copper accumulates in the basal ganglia (see ganglion) of the brain (involved in control of movement), causing progressive degeneration; forms a brownish ring at the margin of the cornea of the eye; and is deposited in the liver, gradually leading to cirrhosis. Other symptoms include tremor, lack of coordination, and personality changes. The disease usually appears in the person's teen years or twenties. Early diagnosis and treatment with a high-protein, low-copper diet and a substance to chelate copper can reverse the effects and prevent permanent brain and liver damage.

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(born Oct. 31, 1828, Sunderland, Durham, Eng.—died May 27, 1914, Warlingham, Surrey) English physicist and chemist. By 1871 he had invented the dry photographic plate, an important improvement in photography. He had already produced an early electric lightbulb (1860), and in 1880, independently of Thomas Alva Edison, he produced a carbon-filament incandescent electric lamp. He also patented a process for squeezing nitrocellulose through holes to form fibres, a process that became widely employed in the textile industry.

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Astronomical observatory located atop Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, California, U.S. Founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale (1868–1938), it was operated jointly with Palomar Observatory as Hale Observatories (1948–80). Its largest optical telescope, with a diameter of 100 in. (2.5 m), enabled Edwin Hubble and his associates to discover evidence of an expanding universe and to estimate its size.

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(born Nov. 5, 1805, Providence, R.I., U.S.—died Dec. 27, 1854, Providence) U.S. politician. From 1834 he served in the Rhode Island legislature, where he tried to introduce constitutional reform to expand white manhood suffrage. In 1841 he organized the People's Party, which held elections and installed Dorr as governor in 1842. The existing government refused to recognize his authority, labeling the action “Dorr's Rebellion.” The state had two governments until 1844, when Dorr was tried for treason; though given a life sentence, he was released in 1845.

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