Local expert consults on PBS documentary

A documentary about Woodrow Wilson, part of the PBS series “American Experience,” features Wisconsin Historical Society curator and Wilson authority John Milton Cooper Jr.

Cooper was chief historian for the two-part documentary broadcast nationally earlier this month. Cooper, who is the E. Gordon Fox Professor of American Institutions at the History Department, is a leading authority on President Wilson.

Cooper’s seven books include the recently published “Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations” (Cambridge University Press, 2001). He also wrote “The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt” (Harvard University Press, 1983).

Cooper says of Wilson: “More than any other 20th-century president except Richard M. Nixon, Wilson continues to evoke strong feelings both for and against him.” The documentary tells the story of America’s 28th president, who reluctantly led the United States into World War I. The program explores how a college professor was transformed into a wartime president who took America onto the world stage.