A superb summary of the Wilson controversy, this. I took Princeton’s first Afro-American history course in the fall of 1968 or 1969. I will never forget my shock at learning about Wilson’s record on race. A required short course on Wilson for entering freshmen would seem an excellent frame for their next four years. How should they look at the heritage of a man who inflicted so much suffering while standing firm against the anti-Semitic great and good on Louis Brandeis’ appointment to the Supreme Court? Few American lives bespeak as clearly as Wilson’s our national contradictions.

Peter D. Kinder ’70
East Dorset, Vt.