<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856--February 3, 1924) was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to 1921 . A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and as Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913, before winning the 1912 presidential election . As president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933 . He also led the United States during World War I, establishing an activist foreign policy known as "Wilsonianism ." He was one of the three key leaders at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he championed a new League of Nations, but he was unable to win Senate approval for U.S. participation in the League . </P> <P> Born in Staunton, Virginia, to a slaveholding family, Wilson spent his early years in Augusta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina . His father was a leading Southern Presbyterian and helped to found the Presbyterian Church in the United States . After earning a Ph. D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University, Wilson taught at various schools before taking a position at Princeton . In 1910, Democratic leaders recruited him to run for the position of Governor of New Jersey . Serving from 1911 to 1913, Wilson broke with party bosses and won the passage of several progressive reforms . Wilson's success in New Jersey gave him a national reputation as a progressive reformer, and his Southern roots helped him win favor in that region . After several ballots, the 1912 Democratic National Convention selected Wilson as the party's presidential nominee . Theodore Roosevelt's third - party candidacy split the Republican Party, which re-nominated incumbent President William Howard Taft . Wilson won the 1912 election with a plurality of the popular vote and a large majority in the Electoral College . </P>

Who was president of the united states immediately following world war i