Abandoning American Neutrality: Woodrow Wilson and the Beginning of Great War, August 1914 - December 1915 in Bloomington, MN

During the first 18 months of World War I, Woodrow Wilson sought to maintain American neutrality, but as this carefully argued study shows, it was ultimately an unsustainable stance. The tension between Wilson's idealism and pragmatism ultimately drove him to abandon neutrality, paving the way for America's entrance into the war in 1917.