Description
Born of a unique collaboration, this biography is a profound study of Woodrow Wilson’s life and career based uncompromisingly upon Sigmund Freud’s insights as the founder of psychoanalysis and upon the records of first-hand witnesses, including Mr. Bullitt himself. The authors reveal with devastating clarity how deeply disturbed a man Wilson was and how his inner conflicts altered the lives of all of us. Some years after the Peace Conference of 1919, Mr. Bullitt planned to write a chapter about Wilson in a book devoted to the Treaty of Versailles. When he mentioned this to Freud, who had been his friend for some time, Freud eagerly suggested that they collaborate on that chapter. Mr. Bullitt was astonished. “A study of Wilson by him,” he said, “might possess the permanent interest of an analysis of Plato by Aristotle. Every educated man would wish to read it. To bury Freud on Wilson in a chapter of my book would be to produce an impossible monstrosity; the part would be greater than the whole.” The two men quickly agreed that they should collaborate on a full-length book about Wilson. They began work at once, reading all essential material, and a final draft was prepared in 1932. Since the authors disagreed over certain passages in the manuscript, the work was put away for a time. Mr. Bullitt returned to America to participate in Franklin Roosevelt’s campaign of 1933. In 1939 he and Freud again met in London, where Freud had settled, and they were then able to agree on a final text. They also agreed that the work should not be published in Mrs. Wilson’s lifetime. Now, at last, the book is available. It plumbs the mind and heart of the man who tried “to make the world safe for democracy” — and who failed.
Some tears on the dust jacket. First Edition.
Interesting book. Interior no outlining.