1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder

How did two men move the world away from wars for land and treasure to wars over ideas and ideologies-a change that would go on to kill millions?In April 1917, Woodrow Wilson-champion of American democracy but also of segregation, advocate for free trade and a new world order based on freedom and justice-thrust the United States into the First World War in order to make the “world safe for democracy”-only to see his dreams for a liberal international system dissolve into chaos, bloodshed, and betrayal.That October, Vladimir Lenin-communist revolutionary and advocate for class war and “dictatorship of the proletariat”-would overthrow Russia’s earlier democratic revolution that had toppled the powerful czar, all in the name of liberating humanity-and instead would set up the most repressive totalitarian regime in history, the Soviet Union. In this incisive, fast-paced history, the New York Times bestselling author Arthur Herman brilliantly reveals how Lenin and Wilson rewrote the rules o