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.Volume Two traces the historical events that lead the colonists to consider detaching themselves from England. Wilson points out that King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War, though fought on New World soil, are viewed as fundamentally European, and that the colonists are beginning to develop interests of a more local nature. Wilson reviews the events of the French and Indian War attributing the success of the English to their more methodical approach to exploiting commerce and creating infrastructure.Wilson now traces the events that lead to the actual rupture between England and the colonies. Erratic taxation is the critical issue that leads the colonists to set up a Congress in Philadelphia.