Woodrow Wilson’s The Author and Signers of the Declaration | A Primary Source Close Read w/ BRI

Join BRI staff Kirk Higgins and Tony Williams as they examine Woodrow Wilson’s
prescient “The Author and Signers of the Declaration” (1907), in which the future
president set the stage for the American progressive movement of the 20th century.
Kirk and Tony discuss Wilson’s ideas on the Declaration of Independence and the
Founders, capturing the new challenges and attitudes towards government that
emerged in the early 1900s. Wilson argued that the United States must prioritize
action over theory to enable true, efficient progress in the modern age and to actualize
the Founding Principle of liberty. How did Wilson’s view of progressivism expand the
scope and role of government?