Woodrow Wilson, though one of the most purely progressive Presidents of the United States, was certainly not a progressive historian. His The History of the American People seldom even contains the slightest hint of disapproval with the institutional status quo of American society. This is the great paradox of progressivism in the early 20th century; although a profound engine for change, it was essentially a conservative movement.In this sense, The History remains valuable for its very unoriginality; its orthodoxy is to notions that the progressive, and later historians reacted against. Examined from today’s “global view” Wilson’s writing is at times unbalanced and unenlightened, but as an expression of the foundation for the modern era of American life, The History can hardly be more educational. That it is also thoughtful, imaginative, and beautifully written is a bonus not easily dismissed.Wilson opens his History at the point of European discovery with a description of the New World as a “veiled and virgin shore,” and proceeds to discuss the waves of European discoverers and their journeys across the Atlantic. With no apologies, he covers the colonial expansion and the sale of black slaves for use in agricultural development. Volume One ends with a discussion of the English Civil War and its impact on the colonial period.