A review by judyward
Coolidge by Amity Shlaes

4.0

Calvin Coolidge was placed on the 1920 Republican ticket as the vice-presidential candidate because of his actions during the 1919 Boston Police Strike when he was Governor of Massachusetts and he became the president on the death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Untainted by the scandals of the Harding administration, Coolidge went on to be elected in his own right in 1924 and presided over four years of pre-Great Depression prosperity. Amity Shlaes has created a glowing portrait of Calvin Coolidge and views him as an unappreciated hero in the political history of the 20th century. Shlaes is clearly an admirer of Coolidge and praises his emergence as a champion of low taxes, small government, and admirer of business as the foundation of America ("He who builds a factory builds a Temple") without analyzing what his administration's policies meant for the average American worker or farmer. Readers who don't share Shlaes' conservative views may become impatient with her dismissal of the real economic distress in which many Americans found themselves after World War I and during the years that we were "Keeping Cool with Coolidge".