Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline

How will Joe Biden and Donald Trump be remembered a century from now? Presidential legacies change over time. For decades, Woodrow Wilson, America’s president from 1913-21 who died 100 years ago, enjoyed a reputation as an enlightened internationalist. He established the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission; he backed the creation of the League of Nations, a precursor to the UN, and was a staunch advocate for democracy abroad. In 1948 Arthur Schlesinger senior, a historian at Harvard, asked 55 other historians to rank the presidents in order of greatness: Wilson came fourth, behind Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt.