John Milton Cooper, Jr., is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of Breaking the Heart of the World: Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations and The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, among other books. He was recently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

When Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, he’ll be walking into history alongside the last president to do so, Woodrow Wilson. John Milton Cooper Jr. on the striking parallels between the two laureates.