Top 5 worst U.S. Presidents.

[Beet]

Let me preface this with that I don't know a lot about Wilson.

I know he was a segregationist and was quoted in the introduction to Birth of a Nation, and that certainly doesn't endear me to him. But what I like about him is that I associate him with the high tide of progressivism (the income tax amendment; the FTC, the Clayton Antitrust Act, child labor laws, and yes even the Federal Reserve). I think the US entry into WWI, while not entirely necessarily, was not heinous either, may have helped to shorten the war and more than anything else pushed the US into superpower status. And while he failed to get the US into the League of Nations or negotiate a more sustainable Treaty of Versailles, I blame the latter on British and French vindictiveness and the former on his opponents in the Senate. I think the League of Nations overall as a concept was vindicated by the UN.

Wilson's decision to champion nationalism I view overall positively within the context of the time that was dominated by empires. I see it as foreshadowing all of the national movements from then until the sunset of empire in the 1960's, and continuing to this day. His Fourteen Points were attractive to many forward-thinkers in anti-imperialist movements, and the failure to fully implement them disappointed them. In the international arena I see him as basically a figure whose ideas were so far ahead of his time that they weren't realistic, but they finally came to greater fruition after WWII. Lastly, fairly or unfairly I associate him also with the success of womens' suffrage. I understand that he didn't originally support it, but eventually changed his mind.

However, I understand that there have been some books written about him that are highly critical. If I read these books, perhaps my mind would be changed.

I don't feel I know enough about the 19th century Presidents to list my five worst.