This Just In: Coolidge

Last week we did a post about the previous Republican Conventions in Cleveland.  One of those times was 1924, and the nominee was Calvin Coolidge.  As such, I thought it would be nice to highlight a book on Coolidge by Amity Shales.  This NY Times bestseller is available in New Arrivals.  Shales’ book is a reexamination of America’s 30^th President. Shales traces Coolidge’s improbable rise from a tiny town in New England to a youth so unpopular he was shut out of college fraternities at Amherst College up through Massachusetts politics. After a divisive period of government excess and corruption, Coolidge restored national trust in Washington and achieved what few other peacetime presidents have: He left office with a federal budget smaller than the one he inherited. A man of calm discipline, he lived by example, renting half of a two-family house for his entire political career rather than compromise his political work by taking on debt. Renowned as a throwback, Coolidge was in fact strikingly modern—an advocate of women’s suffrage and a radio pioneer.