Biography
Biography
My specializations are Late 19th & early 20th c. political, the South. My Research and Teaching Interests include Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Century America; American Foreign Policy; Civil War and Reconstruction; Southern History; Twentieth Century American War; Race and Reform. Current Research : Presidential reputations in twentieth century America; the ‘League fight.’
Education
Ph.D., Columbia
M.A., Columbia
A.B., Princeton
Books
Pivotal Decades The United States, 1900-1920
John M. Cooper. Pivotal Decades The United States, 1900-1920. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1990.
Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century. These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government’s proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and writers. It was a golden age in American politics, when fundamental ideas were given compelling expression by thoughtful candidates. It was a trying time, however, for many Americans, including women who fought for the vote, blacks who began organizing to secure their rights, and activists on the Left who lost theirs in the first Red Scare of the century. John Cooper’s panoramic history of this period shows us where we came from and sheds light on where we are.
The Wilson Era: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Link
John M. Cooper (Editor), and Charles E. Neu (Editor). The Wilson Era: Essays in Honor of Arthur S. Link. Harlan Davidson, Inc, 1990.
A collection of papers originally presented at a conference in honour of the American historian, held at Princeton University, USA, in May 1989. It highlights the breadth of Professor Link’s work, focusing on historical issues of the early 20th century.
The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt
John M. Cooper. The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Harvard University Press, 1983.
The colossal figures who shaped the politics of industrial America emerge in full scale in this engrossing comparative biography. In both the depth and sophistication of intellect that they brought to politics and in the titanic conflict they waged with each other, Roosevelt and Wilson were, like Hamilton and Jefferson before them, the political architects for an entire century. All previous efforts to treat the philosophies and programs of Roosevelt’s New Nationalism and Wilson’s New Freedom have been partial and episodic. Now John Milton Cooper reconstructs in parallel lines the entire range of their ideologies and their struggles—their social identification in terms of class, education, and regional roots; the origins and evolution of their political thought; their party leadership roles; and their psychological characters. After tracking the shared identities of young manhood, Cooper explains the conflict of their mature years that developed from opposing philosophies of government. Not until 1912, when Wilson ran for president, did they come together partially and briefly on common practical grounds of reform of the political process and efforts to curb big business in the public interest. Later, foreign policy in particular pitted them in a deeper conflict that consumed the rest of their lives.
History Courses Taught
- History 200 – Historical Studies
- History 395 – United States, 1877-1914
- History 397 – United States, 1914-1945
- History 600 – Advanced Seminar in History – Topics: “Three American Wars”
- History 901 – Studies in American History