Coolidge

by Amity Shlaes

Calvin Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls. The shy Vermonter, nicknamed "Silent Cal," has long been dismissed as quiet and passive. History has remembered the decade in which he served as a frivolous, extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes, the author known for her riveting, unexpected portrait of the 1930s, provides a similarly fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president. Shlaes shows that the mid-1920s was, in fact, a triumphant period that established our modern way of life: the nation electrified, Americans drove their first cars, and the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus. Coolidge is an eye-opening biography of the little-known president behind that era of remarkable growth and national optimism.

Although Coolidge was sometimes considered old-fashioned, he was the most modern of presidents, advancing not only the automobile trade but also aviation, through his spirited support of Charles Lindbergh. Coolidge's discipline and composure, Shlaes reveals, represented not weakness but strength. First as governor of Massachusetts then as president, Coolidge proved unafraid to take on the divisive issues of this crucial period: reining in public-sector unions, unrelentingly curtailing spending, and rejecting funding for new interest groups.

Perhaps more than any other president, Coolidge understood that doing less could yield more. He reduced the federal budget during his time in office even as the economy grew, wages rose, tax rates fell, and unemployment dropped. As a husband, father, and citizen, the thirtieth president made an equally firm commitment to moderation, shunning lavish parties and special presidential treatment; to him the presidency was not a bully pulpit but a place for humble service. Overcoming private tragedy while in office, including the death of a son, Coolidge showed the nation how to persevere by persevering himself. For a nation looking for a steady hand, he was a welcome pilot.

In this illuminating, magisterial biography, AmityShlaes finally captures the remarkable story of Calvin Coolidge and the decade of extraordinary prosperity that grew from his leadership.

Genres: Biography, History, Presidents, Nonfiction, Politics, American History, Us Presidents

536 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2013

About the author

Amity Shlaes graduated from Yale University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1982.

Shlaes writes a column for Forbes, and served as a nationally syndicated columnist for over a decade, first at the Financial Times, then at Bloomberg. Earlier, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board. She is the author of "Coolidge," "The Forgotten Man," and "The Greedy Hand, all bestsellers. Her first book, "Germany" was about German reunification.

Miss Shlaes chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, situated at the birthplace of President Calvin Coolidge. Michael Pack of Manifold Productions is making a documentary film of her movie "Coolidge." Her new book is "Forgotten Man/Graphic" with artist Paul Rivoche. This book is for classrooms and thinkers everywhere.

Reviews

[Amity Shlaes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a note from the author to say: hope you enjoy COOLIDGE. He was much fun to follow. Please talk to me and CC on the author page on facebook, we do answer emails there.
We also have an author page, Amityshlaes.com.

A number of book clubs have asked why COOLIDGE might be of interest.
Here are several answers:
Coolidge's life tells governments and families how to budget, and explores the link. The Coolidges got twin lion cubs and named them Budget Bureau and Tax Reduction. That is all you need to know -- this twinning.
Taxes can't be the only solution, a family, and a government, needs to budget as well.

Coolidge's life reminds us of the role of faith, and that government can't do what faith can. He believed in Natural Law. "Men do not make laws, they do but discover them." The death of his son Calvin brought him down, but it did not stop CC or Grace, because of their faith.

.....Can a Scrooge be generous? Coolidge was a Scrooge who begat plenty.
Thank you!

[Peter Martuneac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll never understand why some people rate biographies based on how much they like the person in question, especially when it comes to Presidents. Whether you're a fan of Coolidge or not, this book was incredibly well-written, researched, and shined a light on one of those presidents that you never really hear much about.

A bit of a rarity, Coolidge was a President who stuck to his principles and was fiendishly devoted to slashing spending, something we could certainly use now! He was progressive on race relations, and opted not to run for a second term after having served a full term of his own plus the last two of Harding's term following his death (securing a second election would have made Coolidge the longest serving president at the time).

[Mara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite Amity Shlaes hitting all the requisites for a good biography, Calvin Coolidge has earned a spot on my meh list (though, rumor has it, such lists are, themselves now considered ’meh’). Maybe I was biased by his little stern, lipless face but he just never struck me as being all that likable. 

I’m by no means an anomaly in my tepid response to Silent Cal. It seems that, back in the day, Amherst College had quite the Greek Life going (surprising unto itself). However (and you’ll have to excuse my lack of fraternity lingo knowledge here), “brothers” weren’t exactly clamoring to let Calvin into their pledge classes. In fact, Calvin proved to be a deal breaker when a friend tried to broker a two-for-one deal Sophomore year. I (now) know Amherst has fraternities and whatnot, but the amount of time spent on this suggested an environment more akin to Animal House than a New England liberal arts school. 

At Amherst, Coolidge attended a riveting course or two, learned a bit about public speaking and wrote a bunch of letters home needling for extra cash in a circuitous manner. It sure would be nice if I had a bit more to spend as life here is rather expensive. (This last bit is notable given his devotion to thrift in his later life.)

As Calvin came out of his shell he acquired powerful friends who devotedly champion him throughout his life (Frank Stearns, some dude who worked at J.P. Morgan and Crane of Crane & Co. which is notable if you’re into stationary). Stearns tried to get Coolidge to dip a toe into the right social circles- difficult, I guess, due to Calvin’s intense frugality. 

Fast forward to Calvin Coolidge becoming VP to Warren Harding who, then, kicked the bucket, making Coolidge the president (I’m just clarifying for those of you who were deprived of School House Rock and, thus, have no understanding of our political system whatsoever). Calvin was really into slashing the budget, cutting taxes and “saving the government’s money rather than spending it.” This is not the element of Coolidge’s frugality that I found annoying. He was a spendthrift in every element of his life- a poor tipper, he berated the White House staff for ordering too many hams for a big dinner. I got the sense that people were afraid of him- the game wardens of South Dakota stocked the lakes with fish for Coolidge’s vacation there to ensure his angling success. 

Having read Five Days at Memorial, I may have been overly sensitive to Coolidge’s callous response regarding federal aid for a Mississippi River flood in 1927 (the Katrina parallels were painfully evident). I think Michael McLean’s Mini Dove Comic (which are always awesome) sums it up pretty well:


I’m not a sufficiently astute student of economics to analyze Shlaes’ specific theses on the impact of the Coolidge approach to federal finance, but I certainly got the feeling it was one-sided (Jacob Heilbrun’s New York Times review might provide more insight).

Coolidge did not run for a second term, and died not that long after the end of his presidency. The conclusion was lackluster which pretty much parallels the last years of Calvin’s life.

 

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do events recycle, I wonder. Or is it just that the World turns, the seasons bringing the same tragedies? Is there agonistes in each of us revealing itself through school, employment, marriage, deaths?

It was a hundred years ago, more or less, when this story of Calvin Coolidge played out. Yet, reading this, I felt at times as if I had turned on CNN.

- An anarchist’s bomb in a horse-drawn cart explodes outside J.P. Morgan’s headquarters with many deaths. A far greater explosion than any of the individual bombs that had gone off in 1920 or the year before.

- A great northeast gale hits New Jersey and Long Island. The storm was so rough it tossed houses in Long Beach into the sea; on normally tranquil Staten Island 1,500 had to flee their homes.

- Of course, the Mississippi floods and New Orleans is under water. What will the President do? (A good time to check out Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iL...).

- There was even a ‘Fox News’. (The author doesn’t explain, however, that this was a different Fox News than the current purveyor of fair and balanced news. She should have, it being an interesting if brief story).

- Sprinkle in immigration issues, war and peace, and fathers and sons.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----


Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States. He served six years in the job. Not a whole lot happened. He didn’t say a lot; and when he did, he spoke in aphorisms of his own modest making. He believed the government should balance the budget and otherwise stay out of people’s lives.

That’s the short version.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----


Amity Shlaes (who takes a very nice picture) clearly knows her subject. This portrait of Coolidge is revealing, if not particularly impressionistic. She tells the story chronologically, with telling anecdotes and details. But she never steps away from the canvas. Thus, we get to know the man, but are left to make our own assessment (or look elsewhere) as to the worth of Coolidge’s programs and policies.

The Man: He was descended from penny-pinching forebears and became one himself. He had no early success as a kid or student, yet he persevered. Clients liked him as a lawyer because he didn’t speak much, thus racking up fewer billable hours than more loquacious ones. As Governor of Massachusetts, he took a hard line on a Boston Police strike. It was the right move, at the right time, and propelled him to national office.

He had red hair. He had a bit of a temper. When he was President, he still strictly reviewed the household budget for expenses. (Kind of a dick that way). He clearly loved his wife, Grace, but eventually they slept apart.

The Coolidges had two sons. The younger of the two, Cal Jr., was their pride and joy. Shortly after Coolidge became President, Cal Jr. got a blister on his toe from playing tennis on the White House courts. Sepsis developed and the boy died. Coolidge was heartbroken, understandably. Coolidge treated his older son, thereafter, harshly; nothing the boy did seemed to please him and he was the recipient of one nasty letter after the other. For small stuff.

Andrew Mellon was his Secretary of the Treasury and Coolidge drank the Kool-Aid. They cut taxes, balanced the budget and created a surplus. All cool. Then Coolidge correctly predicted that the bottom would fall out. Hunh?

Coolidge didn’t like Herbert Hoover. He was the first President to appoint J. Edgar Hoover to head the FBI.

Calvin Coolidge presided over no (real) war. He didn’t sleep around. When he said something, he meant it.

Coolidge would take a drink (even though it was Prohibition) and he smoked a lot of cigars. He died shortly after leaving office from an apparent heart attack.

Ronald Reagan admired Coolidge and followed many of his actions and policies.

The Book: I feel like I know Calvin Coolidge now. It may or may not be an opinion intended by the author. Shlaes doesn’t really sum up, or place in perspective or draw conclusions. I believe she could have, but she didn’t.

There is an elephant in the room of this book, an essential question in any assessment of Coolidge’s Presidency. What role, if any, did Coolidge’s economic policies have on The Great Depression? Did he cause it? Did the variance from those policies cause it instead? Was it unavoidable? Could Coolidge have stopped or ameliorated it?

I confess to being a fiscal conservative. So I was inclined to lap up the Coolidge policy. But Shlaes shared Mellon’s pithy analogies to lower railroad fares and cheaper cars without convincing analytically. And no ultimate judgement by the author. It seems to me if you are going to write a book about Calvin Coolidge, you should address the worth of his policies.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Amity Shlaes has some stylistic issues, which maybe we can blame on the editor. Two consecutive sentences should never begin with the word ‘Indeed’, as she chose to do on page 380. And, there was a bad habit of dangling an unfinished fact or anecdote. Some examples:

Theodore Roosevelt’s sister Corrine Roosevelt Robinson ... invited Coolidge to speak at the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, telling Coolidge, “I would rather have you as a speaker of this meeting than anyone else for your works seem to me to be a reincarnation of both Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.” Coolidge did not know how to respond and asked Morrow whether he should accept.

Well? If you bring it up, tell us what happened?

There was a new department, the Labor Department, and therefore a new cabinet member.

That sounds almost too obvious to mention, especially when the new cabinet member is never identified.

And, Shlaes inserts running updates of the wonderful Teapot Dome scandal, including the indictments of oil magnate Harry Sinclair and Senator Harry B. Falls. It’s too bad we aren’t told the judicial outcome because it is one of my favorite legal incongruities: that Albert B. Fall was convicted for accepting a bribe that Harry Sinclair was acquitted of giving.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

I didn’t mean for this to sound so negative.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good biography to get a feel for why someone might admire Calvin Coolidge, and even rank him as one of the top Presidents. I don’t think it will be convincing to anyone who doesn’t share Amity Shlaes’s right-wing political views, but it may have some enlightening aspects to anyone interested in the topic.

I can’t rate it higher because it felt rather dry to me. I’m not sure what exactly it could have done differently, all I can say is it just felt dry.

Calvin Coolidge was a principled cutter of spending and taxes. It was his top priority and he worked tirelessly at it. And he succeeded. During his tenure, spending and taxes were cut, while the economy grew and the national debt shrank.

Coolidge also deserves credit for: a scandal free term that increased confidence in the government, progressive views on race, and support for women’s suffrage.

Coolidge’s detractors will say that his economic policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression that would happen a few years later. Shlaes does not provide a detailed defense against this argument, but I don’t blame her – this topic is so meaty it needs its own book. It’s hard to make an overall assessment of Coolidge’s presidency because the answer to this difficult question is so important that it would be the overriding factor in how he should be viewed.

Coolidge did correctly predict when he left office that the stock market was overvalued, and a market correction was coming. I guess we’ll never know how a Coolidge style hands-off approach to handling it would have worked out, as Hoover was much more interventionist. But had he chosen to run in 1928, he probably would have won.

One last note about Coolidge’s economic policies: the one exception to his laissez-faire approach, that Shlaes criticizes him for, was his support of high tariffs. This was driven by regional factions. Republicans had their base of support in the North, and big industries influenced them to support high tariffs to protect their business interests. Democrats were strong in the South, and tended to argue for lower tariffs to help farmers get lower prices.

One of the most memorable parts of the book were when his 16-year-old son died during his presidency (in fact, it happened during the 1924 presidential race). Coolidge was incredibly depressed, but bravely moved forward with his duties. Shlaes shared a moving story that is too long for me to relate, but it involved a young boy who arrives at the White House one morning looking for the President, hoping to tell him “I’m sorry that your boy died.”. Coolidge almost broke down when he heard this, a rare crack in his near superhuman levels of stoicism.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is there greatness in inaction?

We have a tendency to celebrate leaders - and Presidents - who are doers. In that sense, Amity Shales' "Coolidge" is truly a sequel to her last book, the genuinely excellent "The Forgotten Man." In that book she argued that Franklin Roosevelt - though he remains one of America's most-venerated Presidents - did more harm than good in trying to combat the Depression through his policy of "bold, persistent experimentation", which resulted in wild swings of government policy that often did more harm than good and which created unsettled (and therefore harmful) conditions that persisted until the Second World War restored something like regular order.

Coolidge, as he comes across here, is the anti-Roosevelt. Where Roosevelt believed in activity for activity's sake, Coolidge genuinely believed that doing nothing was often the preferable alternative to doing something, especially when the only reason for taking action was to be seen to do something. His speech on taking office as the President of the Massachusetts Senate, published as, "Have Faith in Massachusetts", remains a classic that ought to be required reading in schools all across the world.

What Shales really succeeds in doing, however, is making the case for Coolidge as a man. Where history has often depicted him as a cold and lazy man, fundamentally indifferent to suffering, she instead presents a convincing case that he was actually a deeply compassionate and principled man who believed in limited government as a positive good and who led a consistently simple life devoted to public service. Perhaps in this sense we ought to call Coolidge the American Cato - the last simple small-r republican who not only believed in, but also genuinely lived, the first principles of the republic.

[Brett C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a clearly presented and well-researched narrative on a president I knew nothing about—the caricature of Puritanism, Silent Cal, and the placeholder between two Roosevelts. The author presented a clear biography about president Calvin Coolidge.

Seen as having a focused budget vigilance and a Scrooge, he was onr who made plenty. Coolidge served for sixty-seven months, finishing out Harding's term after he died in early August 1923 and remaining until early March 1929. Under Coolidge, the federal debt fell under Coolidge, the top income tax rate fell down by half to 25% under Coolidge, the federal budget was always in surplus. Under Coolidge, unemployment was 5% or even 3% under Coolidge, Americans wired their homes for electricity and bought their first cars or household appliances on credit. Under Coolidge, the economy grew strongly, even as the federal government shrank. Under Coolidge, the rates of patent applicants and patents granted increased dramatically.

In different ways, many ranging far from economics, Coolidge emulated, resembled or inspired many other presidents. Like John Adams, he endured dark days as vice president. Like Adams and George Washington, he was uncomfortable in high society. Like Abraham Lincoln, he frustrated others with his slowness to respond, but acted decisively when he did move. Like Lincoln, he too lost a son while in office and pushed ahead and achieved much despite that loss. Like Grover Cleveland, he resisted the expansion of government and perfected the use of obscure legislative devices like the pocket veto in service of that cause. Like Theodore Roosevelt, he ended a period of corruption and poured great energy into improving the reputation and quality of government service.

Like Woodrow Wilson, he deemed international law the best approach to prevent war, and poured his heart to campaigning for such a treaty. Like Warren Harding, he understood the value of predictability in government: that a predictable tax policy and predictable policy toward debt were the bases for strong commerce. Like John Kennedy, he looked to the skies and new technology to lift the spirits of the men below. Like Lyndon Johnson, he was a former vice president who masterfully completed legislative work left unfinished after the untimely death of his predecessor. Like Gerald Ford, he healed a country with civility after a period of scandal involving his predecessor.

Like Ronald Reagan, who did appreciate him, Coolidge understood that a government was too large could infringe upon freedom. Like Reagan too, he took a controversial stand against a powerful public sector union at a key moment in US history, in this case, the Boston Police—a move that opened a new and calmer error of less union unrest and increased unemployment. Like George H. W. Bush, Coolidge understood the great importance of civility and character in the presidency, that a man did lived not for himself but for service. Like George H. W. Bush, he saw that individual freedom and religious faith can go hand in hand, and saw that many Americans believed that too.

Perhaps the deepest reason for Coolidge's recent obscurity is that the thirtieth president spoke a different economic language from ours. He did not say "money supply"; he said "credit." He did not say "the federal government"; he said "the national government." He did not say "private sector"; he said "commerce." He did not say "savings"; he said "thrift" or "economy." Indeed, he especially cherished the word "economy" because it came from the Greek for "household." To Coolidge, the national household resembled the family household. Our modern economic lexicon and the theories behind it cannot capture Coolidge is achievements or those of his predecessor, Warren G. Harding.

Overall this was a highly informative and interesting narrative in my opinion. There are many obscured presidents for the various reasons and I think this happens to be one of them. I would recommend this to anyone interested in American politics and history. Thanks!

[Terry Cornell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read bios on President's Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson. Now I've skipped ahead to Coolidge. I really didn't know much about him, other than he was known as 'Silent Cal'. Coolidge was Governor of Massachusetts, then selected to be the vice presidential running mate of President Harding for the 1920 election. When Harding died of a heart attack while in office, Coolidge became president for the remainder of Harding's term, then ran for an additional term.

It was an exciting and trying time to run the country. These were the days of prohibition, but more communities across the country were becoming electrified. Personal ownership of automobiles was spreading. The Hardings and Coolidges rode to the inauguration in matching Packards. This was the first time both the first and second families travelled by car together. Aviation was also starting to gain more influence with it's role in mail delivery, as well as the impact of Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic. But Coolidge also had to deal with cutting bloated government spending after the war, shrinking the size of the federal government, and battling public-sector unions. President Coolidge also had to deal with the tragedy of losing his sixteen year-old son Calvin jr. from blood poisoning--resulting from an infected blister while playing tennis at the White House.

As I read more history of our federal politics, I shouldn't be surprised at many of the similarities of today's political landscape. Often, some concepts are older than we think. I thought the tenets of progressivism was fairly new, but surprised to see the movement's popularity preceding the 1920 national election.

Progressives pushed for reform in cities, but no one seemed to really know what exactly that meant. Pitting Democrats and Republicans against each other was part of the progressive strategy, but the movement became so popular that candidates for the major parties almost seemed to be in a race to adopt the most progressive platform.

But by 1921, during Harding's inauguration--the first broadcast with a microphone, the President had determined it was time to give up on progressivism, and go back to more tried and true policies. “No altered system will work a miracle,” he said. “Any wild experiment will only add to the confusion. Our best assurance lies in efficient administration of our proven system.”

Progressivism still persisted. At Amherst, the university Coolidge graduated from, drama erupted when the trustees polled faculty over the favorability of long term administrator Alexander Meiklejohn. One trustee, and former teacher, Robert Frost stated "Meiklejohn, had taught the boys to favor thinking instead of learning." But Frost also noted, “by thinking, they meant stocking up with radical ideas, by learning, they meant stocking up with conservative ideas.”

Coolidge ran as the Republican candidate for his first full term in 1925. His Democrat opponent John Davis, was also joined by a Progressive candidate Senator Robert La Follette. At the time Davis thought that if the progressives teamed up with the democrats they could undo all of Harding's accomplishments. However La Follette ran as a third party candidate on a platform of expanding government and hoping to take away Republican votes. By the end of the election La Follette had 16.6% of the vote, Davis had only 8.39%, and Coolidge had a whopping 54%.

Other historical tidbits I found interesting:

At the 1920 National Republican convention Warren Harding was finally selected as the party's presidential candidate and Coolidge his VP. A United Press reporter wrote about the party leaders making their decision 'in the smoke filled room', a phrase still frequently used today--even though those rooms are no longer smoke filled.

Warren Harding can be credited for creating the term 'bloviate', or empty, pompous, political speech. Harding was well known for this style of speaking, making him and his VP Coolidge a rather odd couple. Coolidge was not really silent, but often spoke in short sentences, and in a more abbreviated manner.

A speech in Kansas City given to a veterans group by Coolidge later that year sounds very similar to something more well known today. “Your glory lies in what you have given and may give to your country not in what your country has or may give to you.”

During Coolidge's second term, cutting federal spending was a major priority. Andrew Mellon, Coolidge's Treasury Secretary proposed cutting tax rates by 25% to stimulate more spending, thinking this would not have a detrimental effect on revenue. In fact the decreased revenue was less than 5 percent. Perhaps we need more people that think like Mellon in our government today.

Part of the government cost cutting reminds me of the days I worked in municipal government, the 're-inventing' govt. days of the 1990s. One saving Coolidge put into effect was changing the colorful white with blue stripe mail bags, to basic gray canvas. This saved $50,000. Another change--the special red tape that wrapped government documents would be replaced by string. I always wondered where the term govt. red tape came from!

Coolidge's VP Charles Dawes was upset at the 'selfish' senators who wanted to sustain the practice of the filibuster. He thought the concept was undemocratic. Here we are today still debating this same practice.

Coolidge decided he would not run for re-election after his first full-term. Partly, his political philosophy from his days in Vermont was that one full term should be enough. Also, his health had started to decline. I also think he had an inkling of the coming stock market crash that would lead to the Great Depression. His good friend humorist Will Rogers wrote a parody announcing his own candidacy on behalf of 'The Silent Majority'. Originally this term was used to describe Calvin Coolidge supporters during his campaign for nomination at the 1920 National Republican Convention. Yes, the term 'Silent Majority' has become another re-invention.

Some of Coolidge's accomplishments as President: Coolidge appointed not only Harlan Stone to the Supreme Court but seventy-eight other federal judges. Days after Coolidge left office, the Supreme Court upheld the pocket veto, the president’s ability to kill a bill during the congressional recess. The Kellog-Briand pact was passed to promote world peace in the aftermath of World War I.

Among other things, after his presidency Coolidge wrote newspaper columns. He was also chosen to help administer part of the fortune of Conrad Hubert who died in 1928. Mr. Hubert invented the flashlight. Coolidge, along with Governor Al Smith, and Julius Rosenwald (a founder of Sears) were appointed to administer the fortune to various charities. The majority of the $4 million went to the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and various hospitals.

In April, 1932 FDR gave a speech that resonated with Americans across the nation. Over the radio, he spoke of “the Forgotten Man at the bottom of the economic pyramid,” a little fellow who was not getting by in the downturn. The 'Forgotten Man" has been forgotten longer than we realized, we often still here about him today.

Coolidge died of a heart attack in January 1933. One of my favorite quotes of his that still applies today, "Business can stand anything better than uncertainty."

If you are interested in Coolidge, or this time in US history I highly recommend Amity Schlaes' book. She had a more difficult time capturing the nuances of Coolidge the man than some previous presidents. Much of Coolidge's personal correspondence was destroyed at his own direction. Despite this, Schlaes does a great job of bringing the accomplishments of Coolidge to light.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Calvin Coolidge is a hero for some conservatives and libertarians. The author wrote a biography about a president wherein she could not find a single bad thing to say about the man.

Coolidge came to national attention by firing the Boston Policeman that were striking for better wages in 1919. Everyone (including Coolidge) agreed the Boston Police were underpaid at the time. Workers had not had wage increases during the First World War, but the war had produced inflation, so prices had gone up. Breaking the Boston Police strike and firing them got Coolidge on the Harding 1920 ticket as Vice President. There was a deep post war recession that lasted to 1921. After that recession we had the “roaring twenties boom”. Harding had possibly the most corrupt administration ever, but he died in mid-1923. Coolidge was not corrupt, but his view of federal government was to shrink it as much as possible and cut taxes as much as possible. His Treasury Secretary was Andrew Mellon, one of the wealthiest people in the United States, the third-highest income-tax payer in the mid-1920s. Mellon (unsurprisingly) thought taxes should be cut on the richest people. He said this was "scientific taxation". Rich people would invest their tax savings and that would increase industry and produce more government income. Cutting taxes on ordinary people would not have that effect. The author provided evidence that “scientific taxation” was a good idea by noting that other rich people (Ford, Rockefeller, etc.) thought it was a good idea to cut their taxes. (If you want to cut my taxes I’ll call it super-duper taxation). Since the economy was booming after the post war recession and the new industries were being developed (autos, aluminum, radio, airplanes, etc.) government receipts did go up even though tax rates were cut. The author of-course believes the lower taxes caused the boom.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, was the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hundreds were drowned, but Coolidge saw no function for the federal government in flood control. In fact Coolidge never seem to see any function for the federal government, no matter what the need was. It was always the states or the individual’s responsibility to deal with what ever happened. He even was against military spending. His only foreign policy action was the Kellogg–Briand Pact. A silly treaty where all the governments that eventually ended up fighting in WWII “renounced war”.

The author was so entirely sold on this right wing libertarian ideology that she never even suggests that there might have been other possibilities, other choices. She tried to write the most favorable biography conceivable, but Coolidge still comes across as a niggling bookkeeper with an absurdly cramped and narrow view of the office of the presidency.

Interestingly, the author does not dwell on Coolidge’s strong statements on race. From the Wikipedia page on Coolidge I learned the following:
"Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to prohibit lynching, saying in his 1923 State of the Union address that it was a "hideous crime" of which African-Americans were "by no means the sole sufferers", but consisted of the "majority of the victims". However, most Congressional attempts to pass this legislation were filibustered by Southern Democrats. Coolidge appointed some African-Americans to federal office….”

I think the author left this out because libertarians don’t worry about bigots, it’s a personal choice and who are libertarians to judge. I think libertarians are moral simpletons, and find their views as silly and extreme as Marxists or religious fundamentalists.

So if you want a president that makes a mark by breaking unions, cutting taxes on the rich, and sees virtually no function for the federal government, Coolidge was your guy. Reagan followed his example with the air traffic controllers and Scott Walker has with the teachers unions so it is a good playbook for Republicans.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book thirteen of my Presidential Challenge. There is no President who deserved the word "cool" in his name less than President Coolidge. This guy was Boring with a capital B. I can see why Reagan liked him though. Coolidge's one issue was fiscal conservatism. He wanted to shrink the government and by golly by the time he left office he did.

So what? Granted, I don't believe his policies (or probably Hoovers for that matter) caused the Great Depression but they sure didn't help and were ultimately meaningless.

It felt like Coolidge didn't even think about why he wanted the government to be smaller. It was like he just thought "Well obviously a smaller government is better!" Ummm, why? For this being his one issue, he didn't seem to give it a lot of thought.

Especially when it came the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. This was the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He gave almost no Federal support to the victims and never even visited the afflicted areas. Can you imagine a sitting President doing that today?

Fun fact: He was the last (first?) red haired president.

So, yeah, boring guy, boring book. Shlaes clearly is trying to make a case for Coolidge but I wasn't swayed. I wasn't as offended by her agenda as I was by the book on Andrew Jackson, but then again Coolidge wasn't as big a dick as Jackson.

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Calvin Coolidge was a man of impeccable character who conducted himself strictly according to principle, both in his personal life and in public service, often to the degree of seeming inflexible, if not stubbornly anal retentive. He was usually underestimated, but nearly always successful in politics. He religiously advanced sound, responsible economic policy. As president, he relentlessly cut government size and waste while presiding over robust economic growth. He was gifted at clearly and concisely articulating his views, and he was certainly delightfully quotable at times. I wanted to like this book more than I did. The author obviously admires Coolidge and is a complete expert on her subject matter, but I feel this book really could have benefited from the services of a talented editor. I frequently found it dry and tedious. A gifted editor could have cleaned up and better organized the presentation of pertinent information and helped the narrative to flow. That is why I give this book three out of five stars: there is plenty of good information in these pages, but it did NOT draw me in and hold me the way biographies by Ron Chernow, Jean Edward Smith, Harlow Giles Unger, and David McCullough always do.

[Arminius · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated with the cabinet members of the presidencies of the 1920’s. They were a group of superstars. President Harding and Coolidge shared Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Hughes was a former Governor and Supreme Court Justice. They also shared Andrew Mellon. Mellon was the banking giant who understood the American economy and the world’s economy.
Coolidge’s vice president was Charles Dawes. Dawes served as America’s Controller of Currency which charters, regulates, and supervises national banks and thrift institutions as well as federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. He was also awarded the Nobel Peace prize for authoring the WWI reparation payments. In addition, he is the author of a song entitled “Melody in A Major” which became a number one hit song in 1958 under the title “It’s All in the Game.”

Herbert Hoover who was known as “The Great Engineer” was given the Commerce Secretary Job. Hoover was already a celebrity. During WWI, he organized a relief effort which in just six weeks helped 120,000 American tourists return to the United States. At the conclusion of WWI, he was the head of the American Relief Administration. In this position he organized shipments of food saving millions in central Europe from starvation.

Most of these formable public people were picked by President Warren Harding. Harding comes off in this book as someone special. He inherited a dismal economy. He instituted the first part of Treasury Secretary Mellon’s scientific tax cutting plan and the economy recovered. He possessed a great gift of being universally likeable.

President Harding also broke the tradition of the vice president not attending cabinet meetings.

On to President Calvin Coolidge, Ms. Shales lays out his accomplishments in the very beginning of the book. She then proceeds to lay out Calvin Coolidge’s entire life. Calvin was a classic introvert. He would however focus on making speeches at Amherst College in Massachusetts and proceeded to get a law degree. Afterwards, he led a successful law business. He then campaigned and won a variety of political offices until he managed to obtain the Governorship of Massachusetts, this where he made his name. When Boston Police went on strike chaos ensued in the streets. Violence took hold of Boston. Governor Coolidge responded expeditiously hiring new policeman which immediately quelled the violence. His quick successful decision made him a hero in all the major newspapers.

At the 1920 Republican nominating convention Coolidge gained a ground swell of support to be the Republican nominee for President. Warren Harding however had a brilliant manager named Harry Daugherty who garnered support for Harding plus Harding’s likeable magnetism led to his victory and ultimately to the Presidency. Coolidge as one of the most popular nominees at the convention was an easy choice for vice –president. After sitting in on cabinet meetings Coolidge became close with the great team of cabinet members, particularly Andrew Mellon.

Harding surprisingly died in 1923. As a result, Coolidge ascended into the presidency.

He served as President for sixty seven months from August 1923 to March 1929. Under his watch the federal debt fell, the top income tax rate dropped to 25%, the federal budget was always in surplus and the unemployment rate was a miserly 3 %. Modern conveniences also made their first appearances. Electricity first entered American homes, air flight became popular for the first time, and cars made their way into American lives.

In addition, patent grants increased dramatically and KKK membership dropped by millions.

Coolidge worked closely with a man named Herbert Lord to cut government spending. He turned down almost all requests for federal program aid including building dams, creating roads and pensions for service members. He also worked with Andrew Mellon to bring down income tax rates.

Coolidge remained very popular during most of his presidency. After all, he had a booming economy, the world was at relative peace and the government was gaining surpluses while the public’s taxes were lowered.

He commissioned the creation of Mount Rushmore and refused, despite the instance by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, to have his face alongside Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, and Roosevelt. However, his popularity increased in South Dakota and the rest of the Western United States because of his visit.

His popularity waned a little near the end of his presidency. The Mississippi River had over-flowed and caused massive damage to the state of Mississippi and surrounding states in 1927. The affected States asked for Federal aid. Coolidge flatly refused, believing it was a State not Federal issue. Shortly afterward, Coolidge’s home state of Vermont had a massive flood. Again requests for federal aid came in. But once again, President Coolidge remained consistent and turned down the aid request.

Coolidge’s final year in office was 1928. 1928 brought a great accomplishment which unfortunately did not withstand the test of time. Coolidge and, his second Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg ushered in the Kellogg-Briand Pact. This treaty was signed by the United States and fifteen other nations. It outlaws war as a means to settle disputes, substituting diplomacy and world opinion for armed conflict. Eventually it was signed by 62 other nations.

He interestingly retired into the role of a syndicated newspaper columnist where he would give political analysis and warn his successor, Herbert Hoover, of the danger of his tax and spend policies to the economy.

Shortly before he died he warned again that federal spending would not solve, what would become, the Great Depression. He cited how Grover Cleveland’s depression was shortened due to his refusal to spend.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://bestpresidentialbios.com/2015/...

“Coolidge” is Amity Shlaes’s 2013 bestselling biography of the thirtieth president. Shlaes is a former editor at The Wall Street Journal and a former columnist for the Financial Times and Bloomberg magazine. She is currently chair of the board of trustees for the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and author of “The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression.”

Often remembered for his impassive demeanor and cold frugality, Coolidge finds himself in friendly hands with Shales. From the book’s outset she is clearly embarked upon a mission to reinvigorate his legacy and remind a financially stretched nation of his careful fiscal stewardship. And in Shlaes’s view Coolidge is more commendable for what he did not do as president than for what he did.

This 456 page biography is extremely well researched and jam-packed with information. But Shlaes is not as gifted a biographer as investigator. Her narrative exudes an uncomfortably disjointed quality as it bounces from topic to topic, rarely taking the time to draw connections between disparate threads. Important facts and events are often described with the same intensity as trivial ones, and she rarely reviews key points to ensure they have been absorbed by the reader.

Fans of linear chronology will appreciate Shlaes’s steady, careful journey through Coolidge’s life. But it usually feels more like a rigid march through his appointment book – punctuated by revelations regarding Will Rogers, cheese making, or perhaps aviation – than an dexterous exploration of his character. And despite the book’s hefty size, and its penchant for detail, much is left unsaid or under-analyzed.

As a review of the social, economic and political currents of Coolidge’s times this biography is often excellent. Shlaes provides a backdrop to Coolidge’s story that is rich with context and demonstrates her understanding of the era. And yet her biography feels surprisingly sterile, detached and devoid of vibrancy. Neither Coolidge nor the characters surrounding him ever feel like real people.

Readers quickly discover that Shlaes’s politics (or, more precisely, her economics) are frequently on display. Fans of dynamic budget scoring will applaud her cogent arguments in favor of Coolidge’s tax policies. Unfortunately, the axiom that lower tax rates lead to higher revenues is asserted once too often causing this to feel like a policy paper at times. But in nearly every respect Shlaes proves the perfect advocate for Coolidge and his cautious, conservative approach to government.

Amity Shlaes’s biography of Calvin Coolidge is at once disappointing and meritorious. It punctures tired, shallow Coolidge caricatures and yet fails to offer a thorough or engaging study of his character. It is replete with context and interesting tidbits and yet lacks many of the qualities of a superbly-written biography. In the end, “Coolidge” proves a useful introduction to its subject and a reasoned defense of his policies but falls well short of its full potential.

Overall rating: 3½ stars

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Calvin Coolidge is a president who has been defined not by the times in which he lived but in the ones which followed -- specifically the Great Depression, for which he has received a share of the blame. Amity Shlaes's goal, however, is not to bury Coolidge but to praise him by arguing that his policies promote national prosperity through austerity. Yet her argument relies on a good deal of post hoc fallacy that is often contradicted by the very facts she cites (such as her continual reference to growth and prosperity that predated the tax cuts and other measures championed by Coolidge which supposedly brought it about) and she resorts to outright falsehoods in an effort to cover up Coolidge's role in fostering the stock market bubble that burst after he left office.

Nor are these the only problems with her book. Shlaes's text is disappointingly sloppy, riddled with factual and even grammatical errors that suggest the book was a rushed effort. Better editing would have taken care of this, and possibly also cleaned up the morass of details with which she loves to inundate the readers but which only serve to bog them down in her text. Readers seeking to learn more about Coolidge would be well advised to turn to Robert Sobel's Coolidge: An American Enigma, which in every way is superior to Shlaes's muddled effort.

[Bryn D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading and making the parallels between the times of Coolidge and the choices he faced and those we currently face. Coolidge proved that lower taxes, especially for the producers of wealth, may not be popular with the weaker members of society and Marxist agitators in public office, but they are sound economics that benefit all.

The author makes the point throughout this terrific book that Coolidge was principled and had a strong character by resisting public pressure to "do something" during downturns.

Coolidge was a true public servant that we all could learn by.

Therefore: in this book,...

Pros: Great explanation of Coolidge's policies and leadership and affections for the individual, limited government, and federalism

Cons: Coolidge was an enigma and known for silence and brevity, and likewise after finishing this I still can't see to deep inside the man that was Calvin Coolidge. I suppose that's probably what he would have wished, but this a biography with focus on his public career and other key times of his life. I still can't distinctly say what his temperament was or how his relationship with his family was affected by his public service. The author contributes some of these concepts but it was lacking, to me, in this regard. Otherwise this was a great book.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine, modern presentation of the life of America’s 30th president, Coolidge is both well-researched and well-rounded.
It was strange to read about massive budget-cutting at a time when the US is seeing massive budget-cutting of a whole new level. However, there are numerous contrasts between then and now.
Coolidge and his policy focus get a little lost in history, between the wartime spending of Woodrow Wilson, the scandals of Warren Harding, the economic depression of Herbert Hoover, and the swing back to spending under Franklin Roosevelt. Coolidge believed in states fending for themselves, but was perhaps washed away by that thinking. He pushed for a global peace agreement that would make up for the failure to pass Wilson’s grand international plan, but the agreement later proved toothless in the face of tyranny.
Heavy on economic policy, Coolidge also sufficiently covers the youth, friendships, and family life of the president. His love for Abraham Lincoln is clear, and the unwelcome White House tragedy the two presidents have in common is told in heartbreaking detail. Melancholy came over both men.
Coolidge’s death and America’s mourning are presented in short order, much as he himself would have wished. Unfortunately, the text ends there, with nothing about the continued lives of Grace, John, and others who survived the president. But Coolidge was time well spent with “Silent Cal.”

[Charles Haywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

My conclusion, after reading this book, is that Calvin Coolidge is grossly under-rated. Actually, that’s not quite right, because to be under-rated, you first have to be known. As far as I can tell, nearly nobody in America today knows much if anything about Coolidge. I certainly didn’t before reading this book. Yet not only is Coolidge a fascinating character study, his political life and his Presidency hold important lessons for today.

Coolidge was successively governor of Massachusetts, Vice President, and President, covering the period 1919 to 1929. As President, much of his focus was on restoring fiscal stability to the United States after the deficit spending of World War I. He presided over a time of great change in the United States, although the federal government of the time had little to do with the changes, which were mostly technological and sociological. Coolidge was succeeded by Herbert Hoover, who undid most of Coolidge’s fiscal work and presided over the descent to the Great Depression. Perhaps because his life and his Presidency seem to lack drama, Coolidge is little mentioned today.

Coolidge’s was a native Vermonter, with the flinty reserve that Vermonters had historically been known for. He was a Progressive, with much politically in common with Theodore Roosevelt—although nothing else in common, and not nearly as radical as Roosevelt. But by the standards of the time he was, in many ways, fairly liberal. He persevered against uphill odds throughout his life, from humble beginnings and being a social outcast at Amherst, to snobbery from leading politicians who came from “better families,” and both his enemies and friends consistently underestimated him.

But unlike today’s liberals, Coolidge believed that a big government was necessarily bad, because it necessarily impinged on liberty. We see that today, on a scale and promising a future that would have terrified Coolidge. He would have been horrified at the erosion of the rule of law and the idea that the Constitution meant imposition of whatever five unelected judges desired as their political program. Shlaes’s book, while it wisely avoids drawing modern parallels, which always make a historical biography feel stale within a few years, does an excellent job of drawing the man from his youth to his death, and the book is a pleasure to read.

One common vice of any age is imagining that all important ideas are new to that age. Coolidge’s tax policies show that to be false. His main preoccupation while he was President was dealing with the huge spending, huge deficits, and huge tax rates that resulted from World War I. He believed, as once did everyone, that the government should not spend more than it took in and that taxes should be as low as possible on principle. He also believed that higher tax rates did not necessarily mean more tax revenue. While Ronald Reagan pushed tax cuts in part with the argument that reducing tax rates could increase revenue, the theory was treated as new, and named the Laffer Curve, after Arthur Laffer’s supposedly drawing it on a napkin. But not only did Coolidge and his Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon, have a precise understanding of this concept, they carefully passed bills in Congress to gradually test the scope of the effect, showing conclusively that in the tax environment of the time, revenues went up considerably with tax rate cuts.

Of course, the 1920s were a very different time on very many levels (tariffs were regarded as good policy by most, for example), so that does not prove the same result would happen today. But Coolidge’s approach to taxation shows it is always a mistake to think that people in the past were somehow simple or ignorant. In most particulars, other than raw technology, they were less simple and ignorant than us, and worked much harder at self-improvement than us, because aggregate wealth wasn’t enough to support the enormous amount of parasitism we have today. If you didn’t provide value to society, if you wanted to teach womens “studies” or Latino “studies” or some equally worthless pseudo-discipline, or if you wanted to earn your living by receiving government grants and sitting on the couch, or by corrupting the minds of the young in universities against the wishes of the parents paying the bills, you would have starved. So people had to be smart, knowledgeable and competent. When you read about the government in Coolidge’s time, one thing that strikes the reader is that everyone in power was educated and competent—his approach to taxation is only one example.

That said, Coolidge’s primary method of cutting the bloated federal budget was, well, cutting the bloated federal budget. In these days, when merely reducing the rate of increase of any program is treated by those affected as a crime against humanity, and deficits are at level probably literally unimaginable to Coolidge, to read about Coolidge’s and his team’s efforts seems like reading about something a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. For example: Coolidge was personally involved in the decision to change post office mailbags from blue striped ones to gray canvas, to save $50,000 annually. Today, union prevailing wages would be paid through a no-bid contract to a so-called disadvantaged enterprise, and they would cost millions and tear constantly. Nobody today even talks about actual cuts to federal spending, yet Coolidge cut on a massive scale, and refused to spend even when it was damaging to him politically.

Shlaes spends a lot of time showing Coolidge was a man of such principles. As another example, when there was unprecedented giant flooding of the Mississippi, and unprecedented giant flooding in his home state of Vermont (doubtless of the sort that would be blamed on “climate change” today, though then they called it “weather”), Coolidge refused to involve the federal government in relief, believing such action to be a state responsibility. He was criticized for this stand (which, like his refusal to consider more than two terms despite intense pressure to do so, followed the principles of George Washington), and Hoover immediately took a different tack, setting the federal government on the path to the Jabba the Hutt it is today.

A man like Coolidge could not be President today. He was too principled, too little a demagogue, and too intelligent. He did not pander to any constituency at any time. And if a man like Coolidge somehow became President today, he would have no impact, given the rot and bloat of the federal government, including the regulatory bureaucracy, Congress and the Supreme Court; the ascent of the uneducated and unproductive to political power through the diligent efforts of Alinskyite “community organizers”; the fundamental unseriousness of popular culture and its descent to Idiocracy; and the monolithic legacy media’s ability to set and maintain the narrative in favor of the latest in pernicious leftist ideas. So the time is past, and imagining Coolidge as today’s President is not productive, merely a pleasant fantasy. But we can hold him up as a historical ideal, while realizing that what we need now is not a new Coolidge, but aggressive and pitiless destruction of the stranglehold of the Left on America—perhaps, someday, to result in an America where a new Coolidge can, in fact, be President.

[Carl Rollyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The top-hatted Calvin Coolidge who gazes out at readers from the cover of Amity Shlaes’ engrossing new biography seems different from the caricature of the dry, parsimonious New Englander who is usually passed over on the historian’s way to Herbert Hoover’s crash and FDR’s New Deal. Shlaes wants us to see a determined, even-tempered man: Note the neatly horizontal line of the mouth, balanced by wide-open eyes that seem to bounce with life.

In short, there is more to silent Cal — as he was nicknamed in college — if you meet him eye-to-eye.

Of course small-government conservatives embrace Coolidge, who left office in 1929 amid a booming economy and with a federal budget smaller than when he became president in 1923, in the wake of scandals that rocked the Harding administration. But you don’t have to be a Republican to admire Coolidge, a man of extraordinary integrity and discipline. Indeed, he appeals to the full range of the political spectrum — at least to those searching for a way to force government to live within its means while fostering prosperity for the population at large.

Coolidge’s fiscal principles, Shlaes shows, developed out of hard-won success in the austere “snowbound” world of 19th-century New England, in which a sickly young man worked hard and truly understood the value of a dollar. Even if we cannot return to that world (who would want to?), its driving energy, based on thrift, provides a useful perspective on our more permissive and tolerant times.

Today, when the Michigan Legislature has recently voted to establish a right-to-work state, Gov. Coolidge’s stand against the 1919 Boston police strike and his willingness to take on Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor cast his notions of the public good in prominent relief. This biography seeks to turn political discussion back to ideas of self-sufficiency and self-containment, which critics of the New Deal, the Fair Deal and the New Frontier have longed to revive. Whether or not Coolidge’s example can now be emulated, his biographer has provided a vivid example of what success and stability meant in an era when a president subsumed himself in the cares of office and paid scant attention to his public persona.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t know a whole lot about our 30th President before reading this bio. Coolidge brought a strong respect for order, humility, and succinctness to the presidency. He was an extremely principled man with an abundance of common sense and tactfulness. The concept of “scientific taxation” that he and Andrew Mellon encouraged enabled a maximization of federal revenue with a minimal impact on businesses. (If only we had leaders today who revered such pragmatic actions instead of looking to their own short-sighted personal gains.)

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Coolidge” was a valuable reading experience for me because it taught me about the 30th president of the United States, one I knew very little about. For that reason alone I consider it a good read for anyone interested in 20th century America.
Stylistically, as a text it leaves a few things to be desired. The author, Amity Shlaes, is not all that attentive to transitions. In fact, she is not good at them at all. Often times they don’t even exist and you find yourself thrown unexpectedly down another line of thought. Ms. Shlaes also focuses too much on minor figures in the narrative, giving us paragraphs of background information on them, and then they figure into a paragraph of action in the text and disappear. It is almost like she felt a need to show off her research. Shlaes then inexplicably gives many major figures in the book short shrift. As a result many key figures in the text are not all that developed, and she has not created them as vibrant real people. This seems lacking when one reads books by Larsen, McCullough and other writers of historical nonfiction who make the world they are talking about leap off of the page.
Chapter six of “Coolidge” is titled “The Strike” and details Calvin Coolidge’s handling of the Boston Police Strike of 1919. It is very good reading. It is easily the best chapter of the book. Informative and gripping narrative. Also quite good is the final chapter, called “Coda: A Blessing”. It is strong and ends the book nicely.
The text slogs a little at times especially in chapter 10 (“The Budget”). It is wonderfully detailed, but maybe too wonky for most readers. Federal budgets don’t make the most exciting reading out there.
All in all though I enjoyed reading “Coolidge” and am glad I did. I feel the book is for a select audience, but that audience will appreciate its merits just fine. At the least you will finish it for an appreciation of Calvin Coolidge that you probably did not have before. America could use a few more people like him in leadership today.

[carl theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the a 4.1 trillion dollar budget proposed for the US for 2016 and an increasing 19 trillion dollar national debt, “Silent Cal” as President Coolidge was known, must be screaming from his Vermont grave!

As the country’s 30th President, Coolidge’s primary goal was to reduce the 3.3 billion dollar budget and the 28 billion dollar national debt, which was mostly incurred by World War I.
The difference in the billion-trillion numbers boggles budget conscious mind!

Many people could identify a President with an era of the country, Lincoln with the Civil War, FDR with the depression and World War II, JFK with the start of the 1960s, however for personalities of one of the most exciting times, the ‘Roaring Twenties’, perhaps Babe Ruth, Harry Houdini, Charles Lindbergh, Gatsby, Bootleggers, Flappers, Jazz men would come to mind, but not many would name Coolidge.

‘Coolidge’ takes a thorough look at his life; from his Vermont family roots to every political wrangling, from local politics to the White House. This is a big book, so be prepared for a lot of budget details and family insights.

While you do get a close look at politics of the times, and the role of the railroads with the entry of autos and airplanes on transportation scene, there isn’t much to make you feel the popular culture of the era, what is going on during the ‘20s from the everyday person point of view, which I think would make it a more fun read, but then again, an even bigger book. As Coolidge was a fan, there are interesting meetings with Charles Lindbergh after his famous flight.

Calvin Coolidge was about economy, honesty, individualism, and yes, didn’t talk much, a good man, and this is a good read.

This book has 10 pages of photos, a lengthy bibliography but mmm, no index.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why read about Calvin Coolidge you say? I'll admit that Coolidge doesn't inspire a lot of excitement - he isn't celebrated like his Republican predecessor, Lincoln, or the iconic Washington. And while reading this latest biography I was bashfully amused at the mocking comment of a friend of mine who picked up my copy to say, "Coolidge? That is probably the president I've thought the least about." My friend's comments reflect a common sentiment - there isn't a lot of focus on Coolidge in our basic history lessons. The primary focus of the period of American history that covers his presidency is overly focused on the economic prosperity of the "roaring twenties" and the influence of the mafia during the prohibition era. Amity Shlaes's latest biography provides sufficient cause to rediscover Coolidge and evaluate his influence on federal governance. The biography illuminates that although "Silent Cal" was a soft-spoken and direct leader starkly different from the outspoken politician we observe in our modern day, he was immensely popular during his time because he made deliberate decisions that reflected his ability to listen to and assess the needs of the nation without making enemies in the political process. In short, he seems like the kind of guy that we need today, and perhaps he is a Republican I would have liked and voted for.

As most biographies do, Coolidge starts from the 30th president's beginnings to demonstrate the development of the man that would later become a leader. I found Coolidge's humble back-story an inspiring and encouraging tale of a common man who followed his calling to take part in shaping the society he inhabited. He grew up in a very rural part of Vermont, in the town of Plymouth Notch, a place that had few roads and was a rugged land that inspired hard work and forward thinking conservatism of its people. Coolidge's family included many who believed in the American charge to serve their country: several served political office in order to serve their communities, including his father. Coolidge studied at the small college, Amherst, and during his first years he was an unpopular outcast expected to have few successes in later life, yet in his senior years he was inspired by progressive ideas and developed into popular public speaker. After graduating he chose the difficult path to save money and study law the old-fashioned way, by working in a firm while studying for the Bar rather than paying for instruction at law school. As a young lawyer and during the beginnings of his political career Coolidge struggled for several years earning little while continuing to depend upon the support of his thrifty father.

Coolidge rose into the national spotlight when he was Governor of Massachusetts during the Boston Police Strike of 1919. President Wilson was avoiding the events that were causing national attention due to the lawlessness of the riots and violence occurring in Boston. Coolidge supported the Police Commissioner's decision to not recognize the union and furthermore, to not rehire the striking policemen when the strike subsided. The rationale of his decision was grounded in his philosophy of service to the people as demonstrated by his statement that "the action of the police in leaving their posts of duty is not a strike. It is desertion. (167)". Coolidge's handling of the situation eventually promoted him to a nomination as Harding's running mate as the vice president.

Harding and Coolidge won the 1920 election with a landslide victory of 60% of the popular vote, running on a campaign that encouraged a return to "normalcy" following the tumultuous times of the first World War. In office, Harding promoted the development of a national budget (it is amazing to think that there wasn't one before 1920) and to adjust the tax codes to reduce the national debt and promote industrializing the country. Harding's presidency was short lived, dying in 1923. As Coolidge stepped up to the presidential office, he continued the Harding legacy of budgeting and adjusting the tax codes while vetoing many of Congress's attempts to expand the federal government. Due to the prosperity in the country under his policies, Coolidge was immensely popular during his term and easily won the 1924 election. Despite his popularity and the urging to run again in 1928, he chose the humble decision to step away from politics and return to his Vermont home. Unfortunately, after he made this decision in 1927, his influence waned due to the "lame-duck" mentality that always infects congress.

During his term as president, Coolidge's policies were identified as a foundation for the small government philosophy of the current Republican party. However, Coolidge's notes and letters show that the motivations for his actions were inspired by the federalism first championed by President Washington. Coolidge held the state's rights above the federal government's power and his philosophy on federal governance was put to the test during two disasters that occurred during his presidency: a flood in Mississippi and a flood in his home state of Vermont. During the first flood in Mississippi Coolidge did not rush to intervene because he respected the state's authority in handling the situation. When Vermont was subsequently put to the same challenge, he was criticized by some constituents of his home state for not helping his neighbors, but he acted consistently according to the powers of his office and refrained from overstepping the Vermont governance of the situation. Reading about these two events caused me to reflect upon how much the federal government has changed from the 1920's to today. Bush was highly criticized for his delayed intervention in Louisiana following hurricane Katrina and Obama was highly praised for his prompt intervention following the most recent disasters occurring following Hurricane Sandy. The popular sentiment of this day expects government intervention, yet Coolidge remained highly popular during his time for respecting the authority of the states and not overreaching his federal power.

Events like the police strike and the flood situation I described above make Coolidge an enlightening and enriching read. This book provides a lot of insight about the quiet president of whom popular history so often ignores. The writing of the book is engaging during Coolidge's younger years as well as during pivotal moments such as the Boston Strike and both the Mississippi and Vermont floods, however I will acknowledge that as the chronology shifted to Coolidge's presidential years I felt that the narrative focus began to dwindle. This may be in part largely due to the need to cover a much more broad range of topics on both the national and international level, whereas during Coolidge's earlier years the book is more focused on the personal or narrow topics that affected Massachusetts during his governorship. This is a flaw that can be overlooked if your interests are invested in expanding your understanding of the silent president that is often ignored to better understand how the pivotal times that occurred following World War I helped shape the country that we have today.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An account of Coolidge as a man of quiet conviction who presided over a great American transformation.

Calvin Coolidge was always one of those presidents who was a name on the list of presidents who otherwise seemed unmemorable. Especially in a time of a president who dominates the news coverage, Coolidge might come as a pleasant breath of fresh air--someone who cared more for deeds than words, and sometimes influenced more by what he did not do. Perhaps he is not better known simply because he was a president between the wars, during the great economic expansion known as "the roaring Twenties."

Amity Shlaes gives us a presidential biography of Coolidge that certainly raised him in my estimation while reminding me of the limitations and challenges every president faces. Shlaes begins with describing the Coolidge family tree--those that left Vermont for better land, and those who stayed to eke out a life on its rocky soil, a lineage tracing back to the early colonists, peopled by both farmers and politicians. We trace his education at Black River and St Johnsbury Academies and then on to Amherst, where this quiet young man excels in debate.  He establishes a law practice, winning clients attracted to his quiet efficiency that cost them less, kept them out of court, earning him less but building a clientele.

He married Grace, who had spied him through a window while shaving. She was a teacher at the Clark School of the Deaf, which Coolidge in his later years raised $2 million to endow, and created a cause to which Grace gave himself after his death. Shlaes traces his political career from city and state legislator positions to his governorship of Massachusetts during which he takes a strong stand against the Boston Police strike that brings him to national attention, and eventually to nomination as Vice President on the Harding ticket, with the indignities of that office, disrespected by Cabot Lodge from his own state.

Then Harding dies, and Coolidge finds himself in the White House. The bulk of the book traces that presidency. He begins with a restoration of integrity after the crony politics of Harding. He gathers people like Andrew Mellon and Charles Evans Hughes around him. He consistently balances budgets, cuts taxes and expenditures, and increases revenues and surpluses. He wins election in his own right, probably saying less than any other presidential candidate. Often, he presided through the veto and even pioneered the pocket veto, which was upheld in court. He also presided over an incredible economic boom, highway construction, the Lindbergh flight. He resists veterans bonuses which he believed the states should pay. When floods ravage Vermont, he resists flood control legislation because of how it would bloat federal budgets, which he was able to hold to a mere $3 billion per year.

Shlaes makes us aware of how tough the presidency is on the occupants of the office. It broke the health of Wilson, Harding died, and Coolidge also was broken in health by the office, dying within four years. He suffered the loss of a son, Calvin, during his tenure. His marriage was strained. His last years provided a measure of restoration, even though his relationship with Hoover was always tense.

Coolidge, like some others, served to restore the dignity of the office when his predecessor had jeopardized the stature of the office. That is a particular kind of greatness, not the greatness of a war president, but nevertheless important to the republic. Shlaes helps us appreciate the important role men like Coolidge have played in our history.

[David Prichard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pleased to have finally completed this lively biography of a tremendously underrated US president. In contrast to most subsequent American leaders popularly associated with "free markets" and "small government", Calvin Coolidge was more than just talk (something of which "Silent Cal" did famously little, anyway).

Alongside key allies inside his cabinet, he led a genuine and effective drive for thrift in government and steadfastly resisted the growing clamour for expansion. He successfully enacted tax cuts that led to an increase in government revenue, and he stood firm on his commitment to the separation of powers between state and federal government, even in the face of natural calamities.

For a classical liberal like myself, it's difficult not to cheer Coolidge on as the book progresses through his remarkable life and political career, but it's also a bittersweet read. Much of his hard-fought achievements were promptly undone, first by his "activist" Republican successor, Herbert Hoover, and then by the catastrophic New Deal of Franklin Roosevelt. It's also a pipe dream to imagine anyone of Coolidge's humble disposition rising to national politics in today's era, certainly not in the United States, or perhaps anywhere.

Setting aside such pessimism however, the successes of Coolidge's tenure are firmly established in these pages and offer tremendous lessons for how limited government once did work, and can again in future. A remarkable book about a throughly decent politician and man.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this country ever regains some sanity when it comes to economics and the proper role of government it will owe a debt of gratitude to Ms. Shlaes. In so eloquently portraying the life of Calvin Coolidge and the sound ideas that he practiced, she has done us all a great service. As in "The Forgotten Man," we are once again reminded of the folly of "progressive" ideas, especially now. I am old enough to remember tales of the Depression from my parents and grandparents. Old enough, too, to remember even 50 years ago American History Textbooks blaming the depression on the Roaring Twenties, inflation and Republicans aversion to regulation. Oh, my goodness, did we just have a repeat in 2008 till now. Growing-up I never quite understood why my grandfather thought FDR was the ruination of the country. Books like these will, I hope, make a light or two go on in the dim recesses of many voters minds.

[David Monroe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Twaddle. Absolute twaddle. Amity Shlaes tries to polish the turd that is the Coolidge presidency, and it just can't be done. Coolidge, the man is a fascinating enigma of contradictions, it's a shame she mostly focused on an attempt to rehab his presidency. It can't be done. This almost, almost veers into alternate history and is, in fact, an attempt at Right Wing revisionist history. It's bad history, bad intent and bad in general. This is just so much Tea Party soft porn; something made to be hawked on Glenn Beck's inter-webs hub.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice try, Amity. She wants us to believe that Calvin Coolidge is one of the unsung "great" presidents. There are a couple of stumbling blocks (the Great Depression that ended the unsound economics of the 1920s economy and the man himself.) While it is true that Calvin was financially prudent, which is a polite way of saying "cheap", and diligently cut the federal budget on an almost daily basis, he did nothing to rein in the speculators who swarmed Wall Street during his administrations, or to establish an economically stable environment. Since he is quoted in the book as foreseeing the "market correction" of 1929, he might at least have warned Hoover it was coming when he took himself out of the 1928 campaign.

The second drawback to the Calvin hagiography that is being presented is, well, Calvin. He cannot be made into an inspirational figure (which Ronald Reagan was on some levels), and the personality that emerges is dour and almost remarkably unpleasant. Even the rush of pity for him that should follow the sad death of his oldest son is dented by the author's inability create any empathy for him at all. I'd also like to know more about the relationship with Grace, who is kind of obviously the more interesting personality of the marriage.

Reasonably competent but uninspiring biography, which is about the way I would describe the life itself.

[Frank Theising · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think most people have a natural tendency to give a biography higher marks if they share political or ideological positions with the subject and lower marks if the subject resides on the opposite end of the spectrum. So I feel compelled to preface this review by clarifying that, as both conservative and a proponent of fiscal discipline, my low mark for this bio stems from other reasons:

First off, Coolidge is just not that exciting a subject to begin with. His personal life prior to politics has none of the drama or excitement of someone like Teddy, Ike, or Grant. And his political life and presidential administration, with a few exceptions, was focused almost entirely on fiscal responsibility and paying down debt (and let’s be honest, that doesn’t exactly make for riveting reading material). Second, Shlaes’ approach to this book seems to double down on the least exciting aspects of the man and his time. Rather than offer some color and context of life in the “roaring 20s”, we see the Coolidge economic boom almost entirely through the eyes of an accountant with no social life, constantly counting the tax revenue. Third, I found Shlaes’ writing style plodding and occasionally difficult to follow. I felt she had a tendency to either burry important points in long paragraphs or switch subjects with no notice mid-paragraph. I found myself having to re-read pages to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Fourth, the author was clearly enthusiastic about Coolidge’s pro-growth policies and that agenda is clearly reflected in her writing. Nothing wrong with having a strong opinion, but I prefer bios that at least make an attempt at objectivity by presenting opposing viewpoints. Finally, I felt there was no serious analysis of Coolidge’s culpability or lack thereof for the Great Depression. There are compelling arguments to be made on both sides of that debate but she blows through these competing views in just a few short paragraphs.

Silent Cal is hard man to make exciting. Even after reading this book, I still have an incomplete appreciation for why he was so wildly popular (especially in his early political career before he could take credit for a booming economy). The book is not without merit. Indeed some sections (like the death of his teenage son) were covered quite movingly. But by and large, the book felt a little too much like its subject, focused on economic policy to the exclusion of other issues and lacking in personality.

What follows are my notes on the book.

His family farmed the rocky Vermont land (timber, sugar, sheep), while most of his relations moved out west. They succeeded because they lived economically, writing down all expenses in little notebooks. Family lore was full of stories about the consequences of not living within your means (17). In 1872, John Calvin Coolidge was born (he later dropped John from his name). He grew quiet and reserved after the death of his mother. He was sent off to Black River Academy in Ludlow, giving him his first exposure to the larger world (railroads, factories, banks, etc).

Democrat President Grover Cleveland’s decision to remove tariffs advantaged Australia and decimated Vermont sheep farmers (28). In his final year at Ludlow, his sister Abbie died. He traveled to Amherst College to take the entrance exam, leaving Vermont like so many before him (30). Introverted and quiet, he wasn’t invited to join a fraternity. He kept rigorous financial books yet was perpetually short of funds. He was powerfully influenced by Professor Charles Garman and his emphasis on the individual (as opposed to the European focus on classes or groups) (52).

Politics continued to fascinate him. His father support Benjamin Harrison, who had signed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and endorsed tariffs that protected Vermont wool (39). His Amherst professors supported Cleveland, free trade, and the Gold Standard (40). His political awakening took place at a time when the US was first waking up to new questions of itself. In the farming age, people might be underemployed but rarely unemployed. With industrialization and factory closings many people could be suddenly without a job. The income tax became law in 1894 (46).

Unable to afford law school, he began “reading” the law (i.e. apprenticeship under a lawyer for 3 years)(61). The terseness of the silent clerk appealed to clients (who were billed by the hour). He qualified for the law a year earlier than expected and opened his own law office, working common fare of small towns (writs, deeds, rent collection). In 1898, as the US was readying for war with Spain, he won a seat on the city council (71).

Grace Anna Goodhue was everything Coolidge wasn’t: outgoing, athletic, handy, and from a family of Democrats (79). Opposites attracted and they were married in 1905. Independent, he attended church with Grace but never joined, was hesitant to join any civic clubs, and rented a house not liking to be beholden to bankers (91).

Roosevelt dominated the political scene. Coolidge approved of TR’s style of progressivism: sound budgeting, rigorous civil service, school reform, accepting of immigrants. He also approved of TR’s “splendid character” (89). He won a seat in the lower house of the Massachusetts state legislature. His formative legislative experience was during TR’s trust busting. Ironically, it was Morgan and the big banks that stepped in to rescue the monetary system in the Panic of 1907. He decided not to run again in 08 in order to shore up his finances. Lawyering didn’t compensate him for the fun of the political chase and he decided to run for mayor of Northampton in 1909.

Reelected in 1910, he began campaigning for state senate. Both parties were vying for the progressive label and TR was tempted to get back in the fray. Coolidge bridled at TR’s break with tradition and aligned with others to deny him the GOP nomination (113). Coolidge considered himself progressive: he voted for women’s suffrage, state income tax, a minimum wage for female workers, and salary increases for teachers (114). After negotiating a wool manufacturers strike, he soured on progressives, increasingly viewing them as socialists and anarchists. His thinking aligned more with Taft, himself tiring of the progressive onslaught (116). Wilson won when TR split the ticket.

In 1913, he won the Senate presidency. He had expected to pilot, but not in waters of war. The war in Europe was bound to disrupt a port town like Boston. He set aside his concerns about progressives and worked to pull all GOP factions together, always seeking agreement and middle ground (128). Though he deplored spending, he took the lead to make sure MA was doing its part and vowed to support Wilson (128). He drafted his party’s platform that year and included every progressive item they could think of to build a big tent.

European gold began pouring into the US safe haven and the stock market surged on war contracts (133). The surge of war contracts put his colleagues in a spending mood. Amherst alumni, looking to elevate some of their own to positions of greater power, pushed him for Lt Governor. Thanks to new automobiles, campaigning across the state proved easy and he won by a whopping 50K votes. A clear sign he was on a path to be governor in the future (138).

Out of control war spending convinced him the system was broken. The income tax raised money but there was no budget plan overseen by the executive. Legislatures appropriated and spent at will with no discipline or long range plans. He won reelection with an even larger margin, right before the US declared war. Spending tripled and the country borrowed money on a scale unimagined (143). In 1918, he ran for governor. His victory coincided with the WWI armistice (146).

The state legislature voted to consolidate the departments of the commonwealth government from 100 down to 20 but left the execution to the governor. This meant laying off friends and offending political constituencies crucial to future campaigns (his was only a 12 month term). The post-war economy was a mess. Food costs had doubled since 1913. Workers had suffered low wages to “do their part” for the war effort. The war over, they now sought pay raises. Horror stories from Russia put many in a mood to negotiate with organized labor (148). Conciliation seemed the only course for a governor of a big industrial state in 1919. Employers and labor looked to Washington for leadership but Wilson was busy fighting for the League of Nations.

When Boston police went on strike, rioters rampaged unchecked. Coolidge called the state Guard. Fearing other cities would face similar strikes, all appetite for concessions evaporated (159). Bostonians, initially sympathetic with the police, turned on them as the city descended into lawlessness. Wilson discovered reporters were not interested in his League but wanted to talk about labor (163). Coolidge kept the Guard in place and told the police they could never return to their jobs. Arguing this was desertion not a strike, and there could be no compromise (167).

His handling of the strike made him a national figure. He had also upstaged a sitting president. Wilson was still vacillating and refused to get involved in the next big strike (steel). Because of the mandated government cuts, his odds of reelections seemed bleak. Then the coal and steel strikers overplayed their hands. Voters, unable to warms their homes, turned against the unions (181). Coolidge won reelection in a landslide (183). He took advantage of the cover of his victory to announce his controversial “Big List” of slimmed down government (184).

After the war, the country expected a revival but instead faced a worsening economy. War debt was $21B (10x the pre-war debt). The income tax top rate had shot up to 70%. Money fled to tax free municipal bonds, hindering job creation. Railroads were released from national control only to be dumped into a recession (193).

His name appeared among prospected GOP presidential candidates. The front runners included General Leonard Wood (a Roosevelt protégé), Herbert Hoover, and IL Governor Lowden. Coolidge and Ohio Senator and newspaper publisher Warren Harding hoped to emerge a dark horse in a deadlocked convention (189). Among all GOP candidates, Harding best captured the national mood by appealing to common sense and a return to “normalcy”. The sentiment struck a chord with the public reeling from so much upheaval. The savvy and outgoing Harding proved every faction’s 2nd choice and he won on the 10th ballot (200). In an unpredictable stampede, and without any apparent leadership intervention, the delegates enthusiastically selected him as the VP candidate (201).

The GOP won with 60% of the vote and 404-127 in the Electoral College. The GOP also held 70% of the House (9/10 seats not in the South). No longer the progressive party, it was the party of low taxes, tariffs, less government, and stability (209). Harding was naming respected powerhouses to advise him (Hoover to Commerce, Hughes to State, Mellon to Treasury). Silent Cal, almost the exact opposite of the outgoing Harding, experienced culture shock in the DC social scene and he was difficult for many to understand. In addition to his style of dress, quiet demeanor, and breaches of etiquette, he was also shunned by DC high society because he was a threat to the activist, Roosevelt wing of the Republican Party (247). The Harding White House featured the general atmosphere of a convivial gambling saloon (all in the era of Prohibition). Harding’s crowd was much wilder than his own temperament and always seemed to find itself in little scandals (232).

Growth is not automatic, steps had to be taken to bring it about. At the top of the list, Harding and Mellon set about to return income taxes to their pre-war rates. Other Cabinet posts looked for ways to cut. Albert Fall moved to sell the navy’s oil reserves to raise revenue and improve their efficiency (222). Harding called an extra session of Congress to pass his budget law giving the executive branch oversite (225). New Budget Bureau chief Charles Dawes looked for ways to reduce the budget. One was to divest of government surplus left over from the war. Harding called for the Washington Naval Conference to reduce the number of capital ships among the great powers (227).

Of all Harding’s men, Coolidge found himself drawn to Mellon, a kindred spirit struggling to promulgate quality policy and simplify taxes (239). The great legacy of the war (beyond the debt) was the size and waste of government. But lawmakers began querying the way Harding went about commercializing Teapot Dome (Wyoming oil reserves). Fall appeared to accept bribes when he leased it without putting it out for bids and progressives went on the attack (240). Harding vetoed a popular veteran bonus bill, dimming GOP prospects for the mid-terms (242).

He found out about Harding’s death while in Vermont. He was sworn in as president by his father (the local notary). He intended to finish what Harding started, to prove the war was but an interlude and bring the country back to a time of smaller government (253). Coolidge met with his budget director Lord every Friday, before Cabinet meetings. Together they cut, then cut some more trying to reduce the budget from $3.2 to $3B and begin paying down the $20B debt (255). Harding never had the temperament to tell people no. Coolidge almost always said no (263). He and Mellon began promoting “scientific taxation,” the proposition that lower taxes would spur growth and increase tax revenues. Additionally, lower taxes would redirect money away from municipal bonds and put it back into the economy (266). Addressing a joint session of Congress, he pitched Mellon’s tax bill. Coolidge wasn’t loud, but he did speak clearly which worked well over the new medium of radio (273).

The opposition attacked Mellon in an effort to stall the legislation, while they moved to pass a veteran’s bonus/pension bill. He vetoed the bill as too costly and contrary to his efforts to reduce the debt (286). Believing that the only way to win passage of his tax bill was to make concessions, he signed an immigration bill that contained restrictions on the Japanese (285). He signed a token tax reform bill but not the “scientific” bill he and Mellon wanted. He believed he would need to run again to get it passed.

His son Calvin got a blister playing tennis which became infected with streptococcus. The chaotic DNC convention paused to announce the death of the president’s son (300). Coolidge wasn’t the same afterwards. In his darker thoughts, he believed his son would be alive if he had never come to Washington. Politics interested him less.

Even with only the token tax bill, tax revenue was $150M higher than last year (301). If small rate cuts produced greater revenue, then Mellon’s full plan seemed likely to bring in even more. He needed to justify his son’s death with something great and this seemed to be it (302).

While his opponents were more boisterous campaigners, their oratory seemed overwrought on radio. Coolidge won a 3-way race with 54% of the vote (319). Elected in his own right, free to appoint his own cabinet, and with gains in the House and Senate he had more leverage to push his agenda than before. In Feb 1926, Coolidge prevailed signing Mellon’s tax bill into law (339). Many Democrats wanted to use the extra revenue not for debt reduction but large new programs (344). Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover demanded infrastructure projects (like the future Hoover Dam). Despite his refusal to appropriate, Coolidge remained enormously popular and talk of another term was rampant (347). The next fiscal year the Treasury surplus reached $218M. The debt was down to $19B (349).

Coolidge was an enthusiastic supporter of aviation (good for commerce and cheaper than battleships) (350). The Army and Navy viewed their drastically cut budgets as a threat to national defense. He developed a friendship with Lindbergh following his famous flight to Paris.

He set up the summer White House in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Hoover seemed omnipresent during this period, annoying him so much that he went out of his way to put him in his place by telling reporters he’d never be Secretary of State (357). The Mississippi flood of 1927 was the greatest national emergency since WWI. Firmly committed to federalism, he refused to intrude in state affairs. Eventually, he sent Hoover (without gov funds) to chair a relief commission. Hoover amazed all and the whole scenario seemed to prove Hoover’s case for federal management of waterways (359). Hoover had upstaged Coolidge, just as he had upstaged Wilson. Annual surpluses continued to rise: $599M that year, up from $378M the year before (363).

To secure federal funds to sculpt Mt. Rushmore, Borglum asked Coolidge to write the text for the monument. While in SD, he surprised reporters with his announcement that he would not run for reelection (381). He had seen Wilson and Harding fade in office. He had also believed that presidents were surrounded by yes men and it was wise to step down rather than come to believe in your own greatness.

Coolidge expected a severe correction to an artificially high stock market. Yet he believed it wrong to interfere in the market and so did nothing to reign it in (397). He accurately predicted the election of “that superman Hoover” who would increase spending in response to an economic downturn, and that the Democrats that followed him would then spend money like water (398). When Vermont was devastated by terrible flooding that November, he again refusing to intervene, leaving the relief effort to Hoover and the Red Cross (400). He stuck to his principles, even though it meant the ruin of his home state.

At the 1928 Pan-American Conference in Cuba, he proposed a multi-national peace compact (France wanted a bilateral treaty). Coolidge was determined to succeed where Wilson had failed. On August 27th, the Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed, renouncing war as a policy tool for resolving disputes. The Senate ratified the treaty 85-1. In hindsight, the treaty clearly failed but it set a precedent that would be copied in the UN charter.

After Hoover’s election, Coolidge’s mood darkened. He vehemently believed Hoover’s policies in response to the predicted recession would make a bad situation worse, undermining the growth and stability he had worked so hard to build (424). The market continued to climb; he knew the higher it rose, the greater the coming crash.

He felt lucky to survive the presidency and relished leaving public life. He turned down jobs on Wall Street and his relationship with Grace dramatically improved. When the crash came, he thought Hoover’s actions perpetuated panic where he had displayed steady, calming leadership (438). He concluded the reason for the prolonged Depression was uncertainty: “Business can stand anything better than uncertainty” (442). Now writing columns for a publishing house, he lamented that Hoover’s spending exceeded his wildest imagination. Even during the recession, he and his columns remained wildly popular (446). Finally free of the constraints of the office, he felt free to open up about the loss of his son. Still on the Gold Standard and unwilling to run multi-year deficits, Hoover raised taxes to balance the budget. This erosion of his legacy dismayed him (448).

Speaking at Madison Square Garden for Hoover’s reelection campaign, he argued that the GOP would lose if they made this a spending contest. Hoover had spent money like a Democrat but it still wasn’t enough to secure his reelection. It disturbed him that the national mood had slid from normalcy to experimentation so quickly, leaving him feeling he “no longer fit in with these times” (453). He died suddenly on January 5th, 1933.

[GoldGato · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very solid 3-star bio, filled with facts upon facts about the 30th President of the United States, Mr. Calvin Coolidge. We get the full scale chronology from birth to death, which makes this a big, big book.

Coolidge was in the class of Presidents who were distinguished for character more than for heroic achievements.

The little dude from Vermont ended up being wedged between Harding and Hoover, yet another example of the Americans producing the right man at the right time. Harding had brought the Presidency to its lowest sleazy ebb, then expired before his term was complete. This moved VP Coolidge into the White House (his own father, a notary public, performed the swearing in by kerosene lamp), a position he never campaigned for nor wanted. This was lucky for the United States, as it received a man who was the complete opposite of Warren Harding...thrifty, quiet, honest.

"I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President, and I think I will go along with them."

It's seems very strange now that the Roaring Twenties had such a man as President. Mr. Coolidge did not agree with the wild spending and exuberance of the crazy decade, but he loved gadgets and welcomed innovation. He never really enjoyed the highest office of the land and refused to campaign in 1928, voluntarily stepping aside for Hoover's ego.

Dinner Guest:"I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you."
Coolidge:"You lose."

Silent Cal lost his youngest son while President and he never seemed to recover. The glory had vanished. Today he is held responsible by some for the Great Depression that was to follow him, but I think he was more of a prophet, a man who realized you sow what you reap. America wanted the Great Gatsby and it got it, plus the downfall. The man who stopped the unions ("There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time") was ahead of his time. I admired his simple nature, the last of the true rural Americans before urbanization took control.

The book is very straightforward. Shlaes presents the information rather than personalizes, so I appreciated that as a reader. I would have loved some more focus, as one event follows another without much explanation. But then, that would have doubled the size of the book, which would have gone against the very ethos of Coolidge. Simple is best.

Do the day's work.

If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it.

If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that.

Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter.

Expect to be called a demagogue, but don't be a demagogue.

Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science.

Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

Don't hurry to legislate.

Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation.

Book Season = Spring (elegant algebra)

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite economic history books is The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes. A take on the Great Depression that you rarely see from mainstream writers, it did a great job cutting to the chase regarding Depression-era economics. When I saw that Shlaes was doing a biography on Calvin Coolidge, all the better!

First, this is very much a political biography. While there's plenty about his family and his life before politics, it's all framed within the context of his politics and political career. With that in mind, it's a biography that really could only happen in today's political and economic climate, with the record amounts of government debt and with Keynes all the rage. Coolidge, with his tax and budget cutting ways, is an easier sell to an audience as a result.

The book itself is solid. It's highly detailed, with copious notes, and is informative without being dry. For a 450+ page book, the narrative is also very tight, and, at least when it comes to the political history, I didn't feel like I was missing a lot. The downside is that, without a strong focus also at the non-political Coolidge, Coolidge does come across as a little more eccentric than he may have been. For all I know, he may have been a strange man on a whole, but strange people generally don't get elected to the presidency.

If there is a downside, it's that the book is clearly looking to build the case for Coolidge based on his actions. We get very little negative information about Coolidge that might help round out his presidency, and it makes things somewhat lacking as a result in that area. It's not a fatal flaw, but given the overall lack of knowledge people may have of Coolidge, this may not be the fairest introduction for many. On the other hand, this is not an introductory tome, so there's that to consider.

Overall, however, a great book with a lot going for it, and a strong take on a president who, at best, is largely forgotten and at worst unfairly maligned for issues he didn't cause. Worth reading for anyone interested in the political aspects of the 1920s and the aftermath of them.