The Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute invites you to a lecture by Dr. Tom Knock, SMU Department of History, marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Woodrow Wilson. This is the first event in the 2024 Godbey Anniversary Lecture Series.

Woodrow Wilson is neither fondly remembered nor well understood by most Americans. Even so, he occupies a secure position in the pantheon of great presidents. The legislation he signed into law and the new directions he charted in foreign policy shaped US politics and diplomacy throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Only FDR and LBJ have matched his record in enacting significant legislation; and no chief executive ever set in motion a more original plan for reducing the risk of war than Wilson did with the League of Nations. For a variety of reasons, he also remains a controversial president and continues to compel attention, with contemporary concerns part of the driving force. In 2020, for example, a controversy erupted at Princeton when students protested the university's close connection with the twenty-eighth president, because of his segregation of the federal workplace. In his exploration, Tom Knock will discuss Wilson's legacy in the context of both the past and the present.