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The autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Today Americans of all backgrounds are on the hunt for a different politiƯcal model. In fact, such a model awaits them, if only they turn their eyes to their own past . . . to America's thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge's masterful autobiography offers urgent lessons for our age of exploding debt, increasingly centralized power, and fierce partisan division. This expanded and annotated volume, edited by Coolidge biographer Amity Shlaes and authorized by the Coolidge family, is the definitive edition of the text that presidential historian Craig Fehrman calls "the forgotten classic of presidential writing." To read this volume is to understand the tragic extent to which historians underrate President Coolidge. The Coolidge who emerges in these pages is a model of character, principle, and humility--rare qualities in Washington, then as now. A man of great faith, Coolidge told Americans: "Men do not make laws. They do but discover them." Although he emphasized economics, Coolidge insisted on the importance of "things of the spirit." At the height of his popularity, he chose not to run again when his reelection was all but assured. In this autobiography, Coolidge explains his mindset: "It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man." For all his modesty, Coolidge left an expansive legacy--one we would do well to study today. Shlaes and Ưcoeditor ƯMatthew Denhart draw out the lessons from Coolidge's life and career in an enlightening introduction and annotations to Coolidge's text. To aid Coolidge scholars young and old, the editors have also assembled nearly three dozen photographs, several of Coolidge's greatest speeches, a timeline of Coolidge's life, and afterwords by former Vermont governor James H. Douglas and two of Coolidge's great-grandchildren, Jennifer Coolidge Harville and Christopher Coolidge Jeter. This autobiography combats the myths about one of our most misunderstood presidents. It also shows us how much we still have to learn from Calvin CoolidgeAmity Shlaes reclaimed a misunderstood president with her bestselling biography Coolidge. Now she presents an expanded and annotated edition of that president's masterful memoir. The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge is as unjustly neglected as Calvin Coolidge himself. The man caricatured as 'Silent Cal' was a gifted writer. The New York Times called him 'the most literary man who has occupied the White House since 1865.' One biographer wrote that Coolidge's autobiography 'displays a literary grace that is lacking in most such books by former presidents.' The Coolidge who emerges in these pages is a model of character, principle, and humility - rare qualities in Washington. The autobiography offers great insight into the man and his philosophy. Calvin Coolidge's leadership provides urgent lessons for our age of exploding debt and government power. Shlaes and coeditor Matthew Denhart, president of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, underscore those lessons in an enlightening introduction and annotations to Coolidge's text. This handsome new edition is the first to appear in nearly fifteen years. It includes several of Coolidge's greatest speeches, more than a dozen photographs, a timeline of Coolidge's life, and other new material. This autobiography combats the myths about one of our most misunderstood presidents. It also shows us how much we still have to learn from Calvin Coolidge.

Papers, 1921-1929 [microform].

Correspondence files remaining in White House when President left office.

Have faith in Massachusetts