SOURCE: "The Ungenerous Approach to Woodrow Wilson," in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Vol. 44, No. 2, Spring, 1968, pp. 161-81.

In the following essay, Carleton examines the bases for Wilson's negative reputation among contemporary historians and critics, arguing that in most cases they are unfounded and the products of bias.

Although the splenetic atmosphere which enveloped Woodrow Wilson in the 1920's and 1930's, the years of post-Versailles disillusionment, has cleared, a grudging approach to the man survives. If we are to place Wilson in discerning historical perspective, we have still to penetrate persisting myopic misconceptions of him and disclose their ramifying sources.

However, before tackling this contemporary problem of complex and broad historical interpretation, let us take a look at some of the venomous distortions from the earlier period. (The recently published Freud-Bullitt book is a relic of that period.) These constitute in themselves an amazing curiosa, remind us how far...