ABSTRACT
That a man of fifty-six in the physical and mental condition of Thomas Woodrow Wilson should have been able to do the work he did during the six and a half years which separated his inauguration in March 1913 from his collapse in September 1919 is remarkable. He had been interested in domestic politics for forty years and felt certain of his ability to solve domestic problems; but he had never been interested in international politics and his ignorance of foreign relations was as comprehensive as his ignorance of foreign countries. Wilson's mental life had always been bounded by the United States and Great Britain, and in the White House he remained astonishingly ignorant of European politics, geography and racial distribution. In the spring of 1914, Wilson let House go abroad as his personal agent. Although Wilson was little interested in European affairs, he agreed to allow House to try to work out something of the sort.
