A History of the American People (in 5 vols.)

New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1902. First edition. Near Fine. A Near Fine set. Five volumes, octavo (148 x 212 mm), together occupying 23 cm (9 in) of shelf space. Publisher's red cloth titled in gilt. Top edge gilt. A bit of fading to spines and some toning to endpapers. Ink ownership signature, dated 1902, to the front free endpaper of each volume. A fresh and attractive set.

A History of the American People is Woodrow Wilson's narrative of the formation and growth of the United States, from seventeenth-century settlement to 1900. In his History, Wilson "propounded his own frontier thesis to explain American history. Influenced by conversations and correspondence with historian Frederick Jackson Turner, Wilson now credited the frontier, more than the Anglo-Saxon heritage, with the rise of freedom and democracy in the New World" (ANB).

Wilson wrote his History while working as a professor of jurisprudence and political economy at Princeton University. His Princeton years were a time of prolific writing for Wilson: he also published Division and Reunion, 1829-1889 (1893) and George Washington (1897), among other works. He published his History shortly before he became President of Princeton and about a decade before he was elected President of the United States. Near Fine.