The Shaping of a Future President's Economic Thought: Richard T. Ely and Woodrow Wilson at "The Hopkins"

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was the first and is still the only president of the US to hold an earned doctoral degree. His Ph.D. was awarded by the Johns Hopkins University in 1886. Before attending graduate school, Wilson accepted the basic tenets of Manchester classical liberalism with regard to economic policy in the context of an essentially conservative, Burkean political philosophy. His apprenticeship with Richard T. Ely trained him in the historical approach to political economy. To advance his career, Wilson sometimes posed as a conservative while remaining within the historical approach. At times, he seemed to rebel against his mentor, as when he warned the Princeton faculty about the dangers arising from social experimentation. In such cases, he was guided by his "principle" of ad hoc pragmatism in pursuit of the greater good as he understood it, and he was confident that he was one of the elect in the service of God.