Coolidge: An American Enigma

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Summary: Our most forgetabble, understated president
Review: Calvin Cooliedge. Who remmembers him? not very many people. This book will explain why Coolidge's simple ways made him one of the most imporant presidents of the 20th century, not because he accomplished alot but prescisely because he set out to do as little as possible.

Reagan thought Coolidge was an American hero. Why? This book will explain the great enigma of Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge emerged as an American hero when he stood up to the Boston Police department when they went on strike. He fired them and hired new officers because this was a time of anarchy in the city and the people needed security.

As president Coolidge vowed to keep his hands off government, off taxes and away from the public space. He beleived what was good for business was good for America, and he helped support the rising market. Coolidge wanted to pass as few laws as possible so as to keep the government from encroaching on the people. He was a true Jeffersonian.

Coolidge was sworn in with his family bible. He never travelled abroad(except Cuba) and never flew in an airplane or went down in a submarine. He was the last of a dying breed of simple politicians who valued the simple american life. This is an important addition to any collection of American political biography and an important read for someone perplexed with the current governments invasion into our daily lives.

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Summary: Coolidge: Public Servant; King of Dry Humor
Review: Great book for an overall view of Coolidge. A very unassuming man with a dry sense of humor. He was a great public servant who realized that the answer does not come from some government program.

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Summary: Only a Beginning. . .
Review: How interesting that as we look at the last century, President Coolidge has become a polarizing figure. After smears from William Allan White, Arthur Schlesinger and others, Coolidge has finally merited re-evaluation. While not an activist President in the vein of, say, Franklin Roosevelt, Coolidge was far from indolent or passive. He gave more press conferences than any other, inaugurated the use of radio, and sponsored airplanes in the military. However, it was indeed his belief that government should exist for the people, not the other way 'round. Interestingly, he was the last President to refuse to have a telephone in the Oval Office--he considered it undignified. He supported women's suffrage and his wife, Grace, was the first First Lady to smoke in the White House. I have undertaken to read many accounts of Coolidge; he does remain a mystery to us in so many ways. Regardless of the slant of the source, though, his deep sense of decency and honor in performing public service always shines through. I'd recommend purchasing a copy of 'Grace Coolidge and Her Era' from 1962 to give a more human side to both the President and his wife. Another characteristic of this man is that despite his reserve, his overriding love for his wife and sons remains there. The heartbreak that he and Mrs. Coolidge endured with the needless death of their youngest son in the White House cannot be overstated. Especially since we know now that the Staph. infection from which young Calvin died would nowadays have certainly not been fatal. I think part of the reason the Coolidge times have become fascinating for those of us interested in history is the obscurity to which these years have been consigned. The terms of FDR with his extensive radio and movie coverage has overshown the previous three Republican administrations, not by accident. I have concluded that no one book can cover all the aspects of President Coolidge, and he deserves further reading.

Rating:
Summary: Only a Beginning. . .
Review: How interesting that as we look at the last century, President Coolidge has become a polarizing figure. After smears from William Allan White, Arthur Schlesinger and others, Coolidge has finally merited re-evaluation. While not an activist President in the vein of, say, Franklin Roosevelt, Coolidge was far from indolent or passive. He gave more press conferences than any other, inaugurated the use of radio, and sponsored airplanes in the military. However, it was indeed his belief that government should exist for the people, not the other way 'round. Interestingly, he was the last President to refuse to have a telephone in the Oval Office--he considered it undignified. He supported women's suffrage and his wife, Grace, was the first First Lady to smoke in the White House. I have undertaken to read many accounts of Coolidge; he does remain a mystery to us in so many ways. Regardless of the slant of the source, though, his deep sense of decency and honor in performing public service always shines through. I'd recommend purchasing a copy of 'Grace Coolidge and Her Era' from 1962 to give a more human side to both the President and his wife. Another characteristic of this man is that despite his reserve, his overriding love for his wife and sons remains there. The heartbreak that he and Mrs. Coolidge endured with the needless death of their youngest son in the White House cannot be overstated. Especially since we know now that the Staph. infection from which young Calvin died would nowadays have certainly not been fatal. I think part of the reason the Coolidge times have become fascinating for those of us interested in history is the obscurity to which these years have been consigned. The terms of FDR with his extensive radio and movie coverage has overshown the previous three Republican administrations, not by accident. I have concluded that no one book can cover all the aspects of President Coolidge, and he deserves further reading.

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Summary: Fair assessment of an elusive man
Review: I purchased the late Robert Sobel's "Coolidge: An American Enigma" by happenstance. I had no particular opinion of Calvin Coolidge, beyond the general impression that he was one of the very few "caretaker" presidents of the 20th century. After completing this biography, that impression remains unchanged. Despite Sobel's infectious enthusiasm for his subject, Coolidge remains a cipher: likable, decent, honest, but very deliberately lacking in color or discernable personality.

Sobel knows how to write an entertaining biography, especially in light of how dry his subject is. He skillfully follows Coolidge from his childhood in Vermont, his education at Amherst, his governance of Massachusetts, and finally his rise to the office of first vice-president, then president. Through this, Sobel paints interesting portraits of the man and his times. Indeed, some of the most exciting parts of the book occur when Sobel shifts his focus away from Coolidge and focuses on the events that affect the outcome of Coolidge's life. While some of the examination of the Massachusetts political machine seem a little tangential, the passages recounting the Boston police strike and the 1920 Republican convention are particularly gripping. His overview of the scandal's of the Harding administration are paticularly instructive.

Still, Sobel never loses sight of the fact he's writing a book about Coolidge. His examination of Coolidge as president is intriguing, if a little sparse. Sparse, because Coolidge himself is difficult to pin down. He was very much from the laissez-faire school of government, taking great pains to limit federal intervention in state and local matters, as well as business. The downside of this was, as Sobel does note, Coolidge did very little beyond pay lip-service to the plight of African-Americans and Native Americans. He was also not terribly interested in international matters, although as Sobel points out, Coolidge was able to handle tensions with Mexico. He is also very explicit that the tendency to lay the Depression at Coolidge's feet is totally unfair, as Coolidge was only in the vaguest awareness of what could happen to the booming economy, and was far less equipped to do anything about it.

The most substantial problem I had with this book is Sobel's tendency to allow too much of his own bias show. Sobel, from what I can tell, was very much a Reagan Republican. This was obviously a reason for his decision to attempt to rehabilitate Coolidge. However, that often leads to awkward editorializing. The most overt example is a lengthy dissection of previous Coolidge historiography, including an attempt to rebut the works of Arthur M. Schlesinger. While I realize that Sobel's intent was to take on the popular view of Coolidge as some sort of failure, I felt that Sobel's decision to place this argument in the beginning of Chapter 9 inappropriate. This would have made perfect sense in the introduction or the epilogue materials. Including it in the body was distracting, and caused me to set it down for a little while.

Another concern was Sobel's copious use of block excerpts, particularly in the opening of the book. It felt like Sobel was padding a little. As the work progresses, the quotes seem more useful, and less intrusive.

On the whole, I surprised by "Coolidge: An American Enigma". I found Coolidge the man appealing. While he would have been horribly out of step with this day and age (indeed, just years later he would have been quaint), Coolidge was a man of his time, lending further credence to the idea that times make men as much as men make times. Had Sobel distanced himself from his subject, it would have been about perfect. As it stands, it's an excellent single volume about a caretaker president.

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Summary: Much Needed Cure For The Usual Coolidge Dogma
Review: I think Mr. Sobel has done an excellent job in destroying much of the criticism of Calvin Coolidge the man as well as Calvin Coolidge the President.
I picked up this book out of curiosity - I read the Coolidge chapter in Nathan Miller's book "Star-Spangled Men - America's Ten Worst Presidents", and decided to learn more about this silent, penurious, enigmatic President who was apparently heartless and supported big business while in office.
I soon found that this man was quite likable, although he lacked the garrulous nature of many politicians. One of his major faults, as Mr. Sobel put it, was in "not being able to predict the future." He cut taxes four times and had good reason not to interfere with Wall Street (read the book to find out why!).
To any person that wishes to know more about an OUTSTANDING U.S. President who was in office during a time of great prosperity, please consider this wonderful biography.

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Summary: Who is the real Calvin Coolidge
Review: Of all the Presidents, Calvin Coolidge seems to have the least to offer to history. Even the "bad" presidents had something happen. Tell someone that you read a book about Calvin Coolidge, and the first question will be, "who?" But Professor Robert Sobel has done a magnificent job of creating a new out look on Coolidge. More than anything, Sobel shows us who Coolidge was. Amid the contoversy of Wilsonian foriegn policy, the exhaustion of Theodore Roosevelt and Robert LaFollette' progresivisim, and the scandals of Warren Harding, Sobel shows how America embraced Calvin Coolidge because he was, more than anything, a right and moral man. The 1920's were a time when America wanted to take a break from politics, and Coolidge gave that too them. In response, the people gave Calvin Coolidge an overwhelming electoral victory in 1924. Sobel shows us that Coolidge was truly a man elected by the people, because he had no coatail congressman and very little support from his own party. To judge Coolidge, we must judge his times. Sobel shows us that the people in the 1920s wanted Calvin Coolidge, and no matter what Arthur Schlesinger thinks, Coolidge the man for the job. Sobel does a great job of showing how active Coolidge was in his administration, no matter how many naps he took. An interesting look at a conservative era in politics in which most liberal historians want to paint as a failure. Great book. Instead of a drap, boring, business-tool that history thinks of President Coolidge; Sobel gives us a man who worked hard for his constituents, was a unanimous choice of the people, and a man stricken by the death of his son. Very entertaining, and it makes one want to know more about the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover years.

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Summary: The real Coolidge
Review: The late author, Robert Sobel, has done a fine job in peeling away the crusty layers of our thirtieth president. Known for his taciturn and somnolent personality, Calvin Coolidge is revealed in this book to have had more substance than one might have given him credit.

Biographers of presidents who are generally regarded as average or below average often write about their subjects with a bent of pushing them up a notch or two in history. A current biography of Warren G. Harding written by John Dean of Watergate fame, for instance, lays out a theme of trying to lift Harding out of the cellar of presidential comparison. Sobel is a bit less interested in Coolidge's lasting reputation although he would like the reader to be reminded that Coolidge did have some accomplishments while in the White House and that his administration, in stark contrast to Harding, his predecessor, was scandal free and that Coolidge, himself, was a man of tremendous virtue.

The myth that Coolidge was a hard worker is not quite dispelled in Sobel's book. One can surmise that the only midnight oil Calvin Coolidge ever burned was on the night of his sudden inauguration at his father's home in Vermont following Harding's death..... the oath being administered by Coolidge's father.

Sobel spends a little too much time on analyzing the country's finances during the Coolidge administration. At these times the author's writing becomes bogged down in detail and his prose begins to sound like that of his subject...humorless and dry.

That said, I would recommend this book to those who are not only interested in the period between the two World Wars but also in the juxtaposition of the Harding and Coolidge administrations. I also think that reading the Dean biography on Harding in conjunction with the Sobel book on Coolidge would give a fairly accurate, if not overly deep sense of the United States during this period.

One cannot imagine a Coolidge as president during World War II (or for that matter during the depression) any more than one might look at Franklin D. Roosevelt as president during the 1920s. The point of this book seems not to be so much about the successes of Coolidge policy but rather an effort to glimpse the president in a slightly more favorable light. To this end Sobel triumphs. Yet he reminds us in the end that Coolidge was a man who was decent, sometimes shrewd and who filled his role as president in a detached but popular way. Perhaps Calvin Coolidge was indeed the right fit for his times.

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Summary: A quite & unaasumming President
Review: There aren't too many biographies about the life of Calvin Coolidge. This is an absorbing book that is sure to shatter many myths about Coolidge. I highly recommend it for your reading list.

President Coolidge was not a man accustomed to tooting his horn. He is well known for his economical use of words. Without a doubt moderate or conservative in personal behavior, President Coolidge should not be confused with modern political conservatives. While his personal behavior was clearly conservative, his political beliefs were more identifiable with those associated with modern libertarianism. President Coolidge was one who believed that government should exercise restraint and not limit liberty. Despite this belief that government should exercise restraint, President Coolidge's Administration suffered very little from scandal.

Modern historians often portray Coolidge as a minor figure and trivialize his time as President. Often portrayed as a lackey for big business and for not doing anything to prevent the Great Depression, this biography puts holes in the myth that he was in the pocket of big business and responsible for the Depression. President Coolidge was neither lazy, unintelligent, nor an accidental President. Coolidge understood the concept of restraint and approached life as President from that perspective. Not concerned with the outward trappings of power, Coolidge stayed true to his Vermont roots.

You will find that Coolidge was neither indolent nor unintelligent after reading this book. President Coolidge is just the kind of President we need today.

Rating:
Summary: Cooldge - A Man for Our Time
Review: There aren't too many biographies about the life of Calvin Coolidge. This is an absorbing book that is sure to shatter many myths about Coolidge. I highly recommend it for your reading list.

President Coolidge was not a man accustomed to tooting his horn. He is well known for his economical use of words. Without a doubt moderate or conservative in personal behavior, President Coolidge should not be confused with modern political conservatives. While his personal behavior was clearly conservative, his political beliefs were more identifiable with those associated with modern libertarianism. President Coolidge was one who believed that government should exercise restraint and not limit liberty. Despite this belief that government should exercise restraint, President Coolidge's Administration suffered very little from scandal.

Modern historians often portray Coolidge as a minor figure and trivialize his time as President. Often portrayed as a lackey for big business and for not doing anything to prevent the Great Depression, this biography puts holes in the myth that he was in the pocket of big business and responsible for the Depression. President Coolidge was neither lazy, unintelligent, nor an accidental President. Coolidge understood the concept of restraint and approached life as President from that perspective. Not concerned with the outward trappings of power, Coolidge stayed true to his Vermont roots.

You will find that Coolidge was neither indolent nor unintelligent after reading this book. President Coolidge is just the kind of President we need today.