

At once a revision of man and economics, Coolidge gestures to the country we once were and reminds us of qualities we had forgotten and can use today. Renowned as a throwback, Coolidge was in fact strikingly modern-an advocate of women’s suffrage and a radio pioneer. 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. 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. was a bright young man with a promising future ahead of him. In this riveting biography, Shlaes 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. Coolidge Foundation chairman Amity Shlaes contributed a chapter on the death of Calvin Coolidge, Jr., and the impact that tragedy had on President Coolidge.

Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man, delivers a brilliant and provocative reexamination of America’s thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge, and the decade of unparalleled growth that the nation enjoyed under his leadership.
