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The Warrior and the Priest Review
by Troy Husen
History 492
The United States in World Affairs, 1760-1900
Professor Steven J. Bucklin
Department of History
The University of South Dakota
08 December 2006
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John Milton Cooper Jr. is an E. Gordon Fox Professor of American Institutions at
the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He is the author of many books, including
Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of
Nations. He is currently writing a biography on President Woodrow Wilson. Dr. Cooper
is a Princeton alumnus, having received his AB, summa cum laude in 1961. He also holds
MA and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University.
Dr. Cooper served as an instructor of history at Wellesley College, 1965-67, then
assistant professor, 1967-70; he was also an assistant professor of history at the
University Wisconsin, Madison, 1970-71; associate professor, 1971-76; professor, 197687; and William Francis Allen professor history, 1987-99. He was a Fulbright professor,
Council International Exchange Scholars, Moscow, 1987. He is also the author of: Vanity
of Power, 1969; Walter Hines Page, 1977; Pivotal Decades, 1990. He is the editor of
Causes and Consequences of World War I, 1971 and The Wilson Era, 1991.
Cooper was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 1961, the National
Endowment of the Humanities, 1969, 91, and the Guggenheim Foundation, 1979. He is a
member of the Center for National Policy, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the
Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Southern
Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical
Association, the Rotary, and Phi Beta Kappa.1
The Warrior and the Priest’s title was acquired from Nietzsche’s distinction
between the Warrior and the Priest. The Warrior exhibits natural strength, virility, and
drive for power. He is truly a man of nobility, putting honor ahead of self-interest. The
Princeton University. “Woodrow Wilson: In the Nation’s Service.”
[http://www.wws.princeton.edu/pcpia/bios.html]. April 2006.
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Priest is also driven by need for power, but goes about obtaining the coveted control in a
different manner. The priest is not straight forward like the warrior; rather, he utilizes
skills such as intellect to compensate for physical weakness and claiming cowardice is
actually the holy glow of enlightenment.2
The title of this literary work is misleading. At first glance one might assume,
given the title of the book, the focus would be on the two different world and political
planes Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were on. Surprisingly, the central
thesis of Cooper’s work is how similar the two men who greatly shaped and influenced
politics in the twentieth century were to each other. There were obvious physical and
ideological differences, but each of the men had similar goals, just a different means to
obtain them.
To prove his thesis, Cooper demonstrates how both Wilson and Roosevelt were
shrewd politicians, able to manipulate power with little regard to the number of times
they invoked the deity, and conceived of their political careers as crusades.3 Both men
seemed to have a genuine concern of mankind, but did not trust the actions of man. As
background and life experiences are intrical to one’s outlook on the world, both men,
though of different financial backgrounds, had remarkably similar personal experiences
growing up.
Both fought through handicaps as boys, both suffered the loss of a wife at an
early age, and both excelled at scholarly endeavors. Both men were in the election of
1912 and unwittingly or not, helped promote the business of politics. Cooper furthers
2
John Milton Cooper, Jr. The Warrior and the Priest. (Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard
University Press, 1983), 223.
3
Ronald Steel, review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr., The New York
Review of Books 31 (Feb. 16, 1984), 30.
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credibility on the early life experiences that forged the men by utilizing primary sources,
such as a personal interview J. Edwin Webster conducted with Woodrow Wilson in 1878.
The interview stated how Wilson, at the age of sixteen, envisioned himself as a
statesman.4 Cooper also makes use of valid secondary sources, like the works of Edward
Wagenknecht in The Seven Worlds of Theodore Roosevelt, when describing how the
Spanish American War answered the prayers of Roosevelt in the hopes of becoming a
national hero.5
In general, comments about John Cooper’s The Warrior and the Priest have been
positive. David Kennedy, an author and American history professor at Stanford, claims,
“Mr. Cooper is at his best when he analyzes Roosevelt’s and Wilson’s philosophies of
leadership. Both men were artists of Power. Roosevelt the Dionysian artist favored the
primacy of emotion. Wilson was the Apollonian, favoring the primacy of reason.”6
Kennedy concludes by complementing the book as sharp with original insights, balanced
judgments, and graceful narrative. Richard Abrams, Department of History, University
of California Berkley, believed Cooper was on mark with his conclusion of the
ideological tension between Wilson and Roosevelt, reflecting the longstanding and basic
tensions Americans have between a commitment to liberal rationalism and the romantic
appeal of conservatism. Abrams believes this book can help explain the roots of the
current liberal-conservative conflict.7
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Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest, 22.
Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest, 38.
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David M. Kennedy, review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr., The New
York Times Book Review (Nov. 20, 1983), 7.
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Richard M. Abrams, review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr., Reviews
In American History 12 (Dec. 1984), 540.
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The Warrior and the Priest is written in a narrative style. The book is
surprisingly fluid, considering the author alternates chapters on Wilson and Roosevelt.
The book almost plays out like a movie would, highlighting the crucial events that
influenced both Presidents. This book was easy read, with the only negative being the
notes section. For ease and accessibility, it would have been nice to have a section
dedicated solely to Wilson and one solely to Roosevelt, but that is a small concession in
an otherwise well put together work.
To pigeon hole this book, one would classify it as political in nature. Cooper also
has elements of social and economic commentary, evident in his explanation of
Roosevelt’s endorsement of minimum wage and workman’s compensation laws,
abolition of child labor, and view on woman’s suffrage.8 This book takes a look at the
central figures responsible for creating the political outline of the twentieth century.
Overall, the book was effective in showcasing the events that would form the
legacies of both Presidents. Wilson followed the principal of neutrality presented in
George Washington’s farewell address and kept America neutral as long as possible. The
pressure, caused in part by the sinking of the Lusitania, created public and political outcry
to become involved in World War I. The outcry was too great even for the strict ideals of
Woodrow Wilson’s isolationism.
Roosevelt, too, was steadfast on his sense of duty of more developed nations to
help the “uncivilized” world move forward. He found it best to use military force to
ensure such goals, but ideologically had America’s short term interests in mind. After
reading the similarities of both presidents, the question concerning long term stability of
the United States is still up for debate. Who was the warrior, and who was the priest?
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Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest, 188.
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Bibliography
John Milton Cooper, Jr. The Warrior and the Priest. Massachusetts: Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 1983.
Abrams, Richard M. Review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
Reviews In American History 12 (Dec. 1984): 533- 540.
Kennedy, David M. Review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
The New York Times Book Review (Nov., 1983): 7, 20
Princeton University. “Woodrow Wilson: In the Nation’s Service.”
[http://www.wws.princeton.edu/pcpia/bios.html]. April 2006.
Steel, Ronald. Review of The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr. The
New York Review of Books 31 (Feb., 1984): 30.