My Review of Amity Shlaes’ Biography of Calvin Coolidge

“Our ignorance of Coolidge hurts more than our understanding of the presidency; it diminishes our understanding of his era, and our past… Without knowing Coolidge Americans cannot know the 1920s.”

When I engaged on a final push in the fall of 2008, following the election of President Obama, to finish a project that was then 25 years old, a reading of biography or autobiography of every American President, Calvin Coolidge would be among the last to be read. When I got to him, after reading Francis Russell’s biography of Warren G. Harding, The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times, (published under the cloud of legal action that prohibited Russell from publishing some letters) I latched on to Coolidge’s autobiography that I loved for its simplicity and dry wit. I considered it (and still do) one of the best presidential autobiographies ever written. But when I picked up Amity Shlaes’ newly released biography of Coolidge (published by Harper Collins) there was a part of me that wished it would have been available in the summer of 2010 when I read Coolidge in his own words.

The introductory quote (taken from a very fine introduction in which Coolidge is linked to a diverse, both political and personality wise, group of Presidents on different issues that have woven the fabric of American politics) arguing for a greater understanding of Coolidge, is well done by Shlaes throughout the rest of the book. As with most biographies, Shlaes traces Coolidge’s linage, set against the hard scrabble life of Vermont farming and small town life that is isolated from the growing technology of railroads gaining traction not too far away in the rest of New England and America, from birth and into adulthood. But as she writes of his increasing fascination with politics, especially local politics, the reader is drawn into Coolidge’s very New England and independent mind and attitude that would shape his political philosophy to the end of his life.

It is a mind that is at first taken with many of the progressive issues of the day, notably in Coolidge’s world with the working men and women of western Massachusetts, and the demands of fair wages and working conditions. But as the strikes of 1912 shook the town of Lawrence, Massachusetts Coolidge, as its state senator,

“walked away from it all unsure, struck not by the case for or against the strike but by the violence and the cynicism of the strikers; Bread and Roses (the name given to the strike from a poem by James Oppenheim) did not feel, just as the paper said, like Lawrence at all; it felt like something from the outside.” (parenthesis mine)

The result was a move, along with his fellow Republicans, to what would later be called in the candidacy of Richard Nixon, a “law and order” perspective then embraced by President William Taft in the 1912 election. An election that went to Woodrow Wilson due, in part, to Teddy Roosevelt’s third party candidacy.

However, it is in the final five chapters of her work that Shlaes sketches a clear image of Calvin Coolidge that deserves a look not just by the “professionals” of history and political science but also by those who would both agree and disagree with Coolidge’s political philosophy which I would characterized today as libertarian and who are interested in the diverse history of the United States. As she does we are given a portrait of a President, quiet? yes, but also very devoted to paying down the national debt and down sizing the national government. Why? So that America could thrive with fuller employment and improved living standards.

What stood out to me as I read was the resoluteness Coolidge used in standing against progressive forces, including Herbert Hoover who would succeed him as President in 1928, as he fought to limit the federal government’s involvement in American life. It was as resoluteness that would be worn down in the final year of his presidency when the demand for government spending would win out over his desire to keep the national government small and President-elect Hoover’s policies would go in an opposite direction.

Shlaes’ book is a sympathetic but revealing treatment of Coolidge and his life. It shows respect for the issue of character which was very important to Coolidge in light of the scandals of the Harding era. But Shlaes also sketches a clear picture of a changing America in the 1920′s when the demands for development of public works, such as large scale hydroelectric power plants, the need for federal aid during large scale disasters such as the 1926-1927 Mississippi River flood and the 1927 Vermont flood, and the demand for a modernized military was pushing back against Coolidge’s desire to further restrict federal spending and power. A changing America that Coolidge, I believe, found it hard to accept.

I liked this biography of Coolidge. It filled in some important gaps regarding American life and politics of the 1920′s, generally limited it seems, to flappers and the stock market crash of 1929 in many treatments of the period.

I rate this book a “great” read.

Note: I checked out this book from my local library and choose to write a review of it.

 

Inauguration Day Review of Paul Dickson’s Words from the White House

“I am a friend to neology. It is the the only way to give a language copiousness and euphony.”

Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in an 1820 letter

Neology is according to dictionary.com is “the practice of using or introducing neologisms.” And a neologism is “a newly coined word, or a phrase or familiar word used in a new sense.” (dictionary.com)

On this Inauguration Day it is a privilege to offer a review of Paul Dickson’s new book Words from the White House: Words or Phrases Coined or Popularized by America’s Presidents.

Published earlier this month by Walker and Company, Words from the White House is an alphabetical listing of words and phrases either coined (newly minted?) by one of the American Presidents or made popular by them or, in some cases, influenced their language in some way, and a listing, by the order of their Presidency, of some ‘firsts’ of each man to have held the office. (Which President was the first to be wounded in battle?)

“Why this book?” you might ask. Dickson provides us with a good answer in his short introduction:

“By nature of the microscope under which they are observed, presidents are more likely than the rest of us to have have words or phrases attributed to them they did not coin. Presidents are also more likely to come under fire for “impurity” of speech or for their disregard of the “rules” of English-or, even worse, for using words that are undignified.”

I learned a few new things in reading this book that perhaps you, the reader of this review, already knew but that is part of joy and delight of reading. For example, probably obvious to some, maybe many, is the origin for the naming of the famous New York City street – Madison Ave. Yes, it was named, like the Wisconsin capital city of Madison for our fourth president after his death in 1836.

How about the common word ‘ok?’ According to this book it seemed to have originated as an abbreviation of the word orl korreckt “a jokey misspelling of “all correct.” But it was popularized as the nickname of “Old Kinderhook,” Martin Van Buren, who was supported by an “O.K. Club during his 1840 Campaign.

Interesting and insightful, this short volume brings to life both “American English” and American History through the phrases and words that defined Presidents and their administrations as well as the best, and worst, of American politics and history. This book is a delightful addition to a coffee table or Trivial Pursuit discussion of the American Presidency.

I liked this book and I rate it a ‘great’ read.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher. I was not required to write a review of it. I chose to write a review.

Answer to the question go the first American President to be wounded in battle? James Monroe

Reading the Presidents, Part 3 (Final Installment)

With my finishing George W Bush’s Decision Points a few days ago and my reading of Barak Obama’s Dreams from My Father back before he was both nominated and elected the United States’ 44^th President, I have completed a reading project that I began in 1981/82 and decided to finish in earnest after President Obama’s election two years ago – that of reading a biography/autobiography of every American President.

It started with Richard Nixon’s memoirs, then onto Robert Caro’s wonderful multivolume work on Lyndon Johnson (for which I am patiently waiting for the fourth and probably final volume), then onto Gerald Ford’s autobiography. Years passed with a reading here and there of a President.

Finally, after a break in the summer of 2009, I began the final leg of the journey in chronological order starting with Washington and working forward in order of election. I suggest that if you want to engage a similar project that you read them in this order as it will provide you a fascinating contrast in both the books your read and in the tapestry of history that is woven as you read.

Since my last update nearly a year ago now I have read the following books:

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J Rayback,

President James Buchanan by Philip Shriver Klein

The Presidency of Franklin Pierce by Larry Gara

Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans L Trefousse

Ulysses S Grant: Soldier and President by Geoffrey Perret

Rutherford B Hays by Hans L Trefousse

James A Garfield by Ira Rutkow

Chester A Arthur by Zachary Karabell

Grover Cleveland by Allan Nevins

Benjamin Harrison by Charles W Calhoun

William McKinley by Margaret Leech

The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G Harding in His Times by Francis Russell

The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge

Herbert Hoover: A Biography by Eugene Lyons

JFK by Robert Dallek

George HW Bush by Timothy Naftali

Decision Points by George W Bush

While I learned valuable facts and was presented with a variety of perspectives on both the men in office and the culture of their day, political and otherwise, in all the books of this group I read, Perret’s bio of Grant, Leech’s bio of McKinley, Russell’s bio of Harding and Coolidge’s plain spoken and simple autobiography stood out to me. However, each of the others provided good background to the policies, culture, and politics of the day.

Now, having read a book on all forty-four Presidents, here are some summary thoughts about themes that stood out to me. (I hint at or address aspects of these in my other two posts on this subject, found here

http://1manandhisbooks.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/reading-the-presidents-part-2/

http://1manandhisbooks.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/reading-the-presidents-part-1-2/

1.   The development of the office from an executive director type position to a strong executive branch and leader.

From my reading, the Presidency prior to Andrew Jackson was overshadowed by a strong legislative branch. Yes there was Washington, both Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, all who have influenced our political and international history and shaped our policies over the decades. That all changed with the election of Andrew Jackson. His strong personality changed the Presidential office forever. And he threw American politics into a higher gear.

2.   Some shaped the office and the direction of the nation who are not listed among the “top Presidents” on many scholars list.

Two cases in point: James Polk and Andrew Johnson. Polk set the very important precedent of succession in 1841 when he assumed, much to the grave displeasure of the Whig Party and Henry Clay, the Presidency after the first death in office by William Henry Harrison. The precedent would stand until the 39^thamendment ratified in 1967, after the deaths of Taylor, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, FDR, and JFK occurred (and which in several instances left the office of Vice President vacant for the reminder of the assumed terms), which laid out the line of succession when the President died in office.

Johnson, who assumed the office after Lincoln’s assassination, and narrowly escaped impeachment, set the tone of the country in a direction that, I believe, would have been vastly different to the direction Lincoln would have gone. Race relations and the redevelopment and development of the American south, among other things, were affected by Johnson’s time in office. But, as the next point will highlight, there was a growing western influence and industrial base that began to grow no matter who was President.

3.   Forces, some regional and, later on national, then international, often exerted a greater influence on a President that is perhaps realized.

I think that this is the case in the administrations of Fillmore, Buchanan, and Pierce. The fever pitch sectional differences between North and South (and both had their supporters in the opposing regions) created a force that these men were powerless to change. Of course political coalitions (and parties) were very much a part of the 1850’s as the parties of that day were more like political amoebas than the strong and vast organizations of today. Those coalitions, I think, were though, as much to blame for the gridlock on not just slavery but a whole host of issues, in a nation that was beginning to become industrials and less a north/south nation and more of a north/south/west nation.

For Hayes, Arthur, Garfield, and Harrison, the push west and then into the Pacific, was a force that has implications still today for our nation. McKinley, and Mrs. Leech does a wonderful job on this point, brings to the front the international situations of Cuba and the Philippines that forced him, to be the predecessor to the 20^th century Presidency (and now 21^st century).

Now, I know that a subject of often great contention not just today but I think in the past 40 years, given the rise of faith-based organizations on both the left and the right, has to do with Presidential faith. One of the interesting things about reading these books is that they span over a century of work (Edward Shepherd’s bio of Martin Van Buren, was written in the 1890’s). As a result, there are different treatments of a President’s faith. Some of the books that I read had little to say about it. Of the autobios that I read, (Grant, Coolidge, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and GWB) the later men have more to say about faith than the earlier men. I think that the cultural milieu of each author has an impact here.

Now of all the bios/autobios that I read in this endeavor, here the ones that have made an impression on me throughout the entire process.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s A Team of Rivals on Abe Lincoln and her one volume on LBJ, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. (To hear her make a wonderful presentation about her work on Lincoln and her personal experiences with LBJ, go herehttp://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/doris_kearns_goodwin_on_learning_from_past_presidents.htmlIt is worth your time.)

Robert A Caro’s LBJ series is rich and wonderful. The third volume The Master of the Senate gives a wonderful introduction to the history of the US Senate and how LBJ overcame that history to become the Majority Leader.

Calvin Coolidge’s autobiography is a classic. Simple and direct with New England wit.

Joseph J Ellis’ American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson gave me some new insights into our third President whose philosophy of government is still strong today.

Margaret Leech’s bio of William McKinley. At times McKinley is in the background as Leech brings the normal background of biography to the foreground to help the reader understand the emerging international environment that McKinley had to address while in office.

Geoffrey Perret’s bio of Grant brings out several valid points about the Civil War and its conduct as well as capturing what I believe was the essence of Grant’s personality – simple and humble. Grant’s own biography is worth the read. It is simply one of the most well written autobios that I have ever read. Period.

Robert Rayback’s bio of Millard Fillmore gives us a wonderful glimpse of a President that few care to know about. Well written and worth your time.

Finally Russell’s treatment of Harding is intense and deep. Written and published under a legal order that prohibited the publishing of letters between Harding and Carrie Phillips, it probes who Harding was and became in the context of his upbringing and life.

History happens and there are facts that are indisputable because they are observable and, as often is the case, recorded for posterity. But the challenge and the friction of history, that often cause people to react in strong ways, is the reason of “why” did such and such happen. That is where the personalities of historical study and the forces of the “why” collide into the moments in which various forces and personalities, as well as good and evil, operate.

What a country this is!

Review of Timothy Naftali’s biography of George HW Bush

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Part of The American President Series published by Times Books, an imprint of Henry Holt Timothy Naftali’s biography of 41st President of the United States is a work that brings out the multi-dimensional nature of George Herbert Walker Bush.

The father of the 43rd President of the United States, George W Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush,  and the son of a former US Senator, Naftali’s portrait of Bush is spelled out in the introduction to the book where he indicates that part of his purpose is to “bring George Bush’s presidency into focus. The portrait that Naftali goes onto paint is one of a an ambitious, yet humble man who was at turns both conservative and progressive, steel-willed and emotional.

A war hero at 21,  Naftali follows Bush as he forsakes his eastern roots and moves to Texas as an oilman following graduation at Yale. He finds success and then begins to pursue a career in politics that includes a one term stint as a congressman but then broadens into a journey to the United Nations as the American Ambassador and Director of Central Intelligence Agency and then on to a failed Presidential bid followed by an election as Ronald Reagan’s Vice-President in 1980 and the into the Presidency in 1988.

Highly readable, this biography of George HW Bush, while at turns sharp and critical and then respectful and broadly affirming, provides us with a good introduction to the last World War 2 veteran who would serve as President. A President who will continue to be assessed, along with his Presidential son, in the years to come.

A Review of Robert Dallek’s bio of JFK

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“Kennedy’s presidency is better understood as a patchwork of stumbles and significant achievements.”

So concludes Robert Dallek‘s  in his biograhpy of John F Kennedy entitled An Unfinished Life.

An Unfinished Life is a well written and well researched biography of our 35th President whose tragic death is still debated and discussed today.

I found this biography of Kennedy to be honest, yet respectful in tone and scope. Dallek does not reassess JFK’s life in an tabloid fashion nor does he overlook Kennedy’s medical issues as well as his compulsive womanizing. He attempts to present JFK’s life and term in office in forthright terms.

Some may find Dallek’s unwillingness to dig in to the more “juicer” aspects of Kennedy’s life as lacking. But I find his willingness to assess Kennedy as President, a very fruitful effort.

This book brings to light the challenging themes of Vietnam, Cuba, nuclear proliferation, and civil rights and how Kennedy sought to deal with each one as he navigated a middle way, if possible, in these issues.

A ‘you are there’ attitude pervades this book with these previously named issues but it comes to a very effective climax, in my opinion, with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

A very helpful work and assessment of Kennedy, his character and his presidency.

A Review of Eugene Lyons’ Herbert Hoover: A Biography

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“But personally, having studied his many lives with considerable diligence, I lean to the belief that in Hoover’s case it will be largely irrelevant how he is ranked in arbitrary assessments of presidential greatness. His life, I am convinced, will be measured less by what he did- colossal though it has been-than by what he was. Already, in fact, his country-men instinctively appraise him in moral rather than conventional political terms. They think of him, if  at all, not primarily as a President, however rated, but as a great American and a great human being – as truly good man, whose compassion reached out to embrace all humankind.” (Italics his)

So concludes Eugene Lyons assessment of our 31st President, Herbert Hoover.

Warmly, but honestly, written, Lyons’ biography, (published under this title in 1964 as a second edition to his first bio of Hoover in 1947) provides an honest assessment of a President who lived longer than any other President after leaving office. (1933 to 1964)

Lyons, whose own life was quite a story, sketches Hoover’s journey from West Branch, Iowa (the first President born west of the Mississippi) to Oregon to be raised by relatives (he had become an orphan due to the death of his mother and father) and then on to become a member of the first class at the newly opened Stanford University in 1891.

As he writes, Lyons notes Hoover’s strong work ethic that would created a deep and loyal following among people of many nations and a cadre of persons that would work for him for many years. Lyons also notes of Hoover’s quick thinking and assessment abilities in the field as a mining engineer.

In fact, Lyons does a thorough job of tracing the development of Hoover’s humanitarian heart and abilities through two World Wars. As he does so, Hoover’s leadership abilities are easily displayed.

In the segment dealing with service to the Harding and Coolidge administrations, Lyons notes Hoover’s conservative lifestyle starkly contrasted to Harding’s more active one while perhaps finding more of a fit in the quieter and equally conservative Coolidge entourage.

Lyons effectively seeks to redeem Hoover’s character and Presidential effectiveness from the mudslinging of the 30′s and 40′s when, from his perspective, he was snubbed by FDR and the rest of the nation. The challenging of assumptions about who was responsible for the depression is a highlight of the book.

But, while singing the praises of Hoover and his compassionate character across the decades, Lyons makes one thing clear. Hoover was not at his best as President.

There is more to this biography than I can write in a succinct way. Capably and honest written, Lyons’ work on our 31st President will provide the reader with a comprehensive, honest, and fair assessment of the life of our 31st President.

Review of the Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

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Like the apocryphal story of a two word conversation with the poet and satirist Dorothy Parker (who thought she could get more than two words out of him), Calvin Coolidge’s autobiography, published in 1929, is brief. The 30^th President of the United States, Coolidge assumed office after the death of the 29^th President, Warren Harding.

In this volume of fewer than 300 pages, Coolidge simply sketches his childhood and the values he learned from his rural Vermont upbringing; then to his time at boarding school and onto Amherst College; his choice of law as a profession and his subsequent rise up through the ranks of public service; and the rise to the Presidency.

I believe that Coolidge could have been an introvert (hence his reputation as a person of few words.) And this tendency would color his choice of words and what he chose to write.

I believe that reading a Presidential autobiography is valuable experience in understanding the men who occupied that office. I have read Grant’s and Clinton’s and both are substantially larger and more detailed works than Coolidge’s. But to hear Coolidge in his own words leads the reader toward a more valuable understanding of him.

I did enjoy reading this book and believe that our 30^th President was a humble man.

And since he had the distinction of being the first President to be recorded on “talking pictures” I refer the reader of this review to this link at archive.org http://www.archive.org/details/coolidge_1924 as well as a link to the autobiography at the same site here http://www.archive.org/details/autobiographyofc011710mbp

There are other resources on him as well.

Review of Francis Russell’s biography of Warren G Harding (The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G Harding in His Times)

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Just what nationality is our President? A common question today? Yes! But also a question asked of our 29th President who had the shadow of African-American ancestry follow him throughout his life.

A poignant and thorough study of our 29th President,  Warren G Harding, Russell’s biography is a very valid examine of the tensions of history and historical research.

Written as he indicates in the acknowledgements “to the accompaniment of a million-dollar lawsuit” because of his involvement in the discovery of the Carrie Phillips letters, one of Harding’s mistress’, Russell traces the history of the Hardings and their tumultuous life.

Well researched, Russell paints a fairly sympathetic picture of Harding and reveals a man, passionate with women, at odds in a strained marriage, and yet one who like to get along with everyone. And that getting along ability was one, I think, that he was nominated and elected President in 1920.

Though this book was published in 1968 (and under court order Russell had to leave out the excerpts of letters between Phillips and Harding) it provides a detail glimpse into the personality of not just Harding but those who served in his cabinet and administration. And some of the dynamics and factors of politics are strangely a part of today’s discussion about the same issues.
I think that Russell did a wonderful job of bringing out the high points (such as a pointed addressed about the rights of African-Americans to an audience in Birmingham, Alabama) and the low points (such as his hesitation to dismiss corrupt members of his cabinet in a timely and forthright way.)

This book is a good, and controversial, introduction to the life of a President who perhaps is the least known and one of the lower “ranked” Presidents.

Review of Margaret Leech’s biography of William McKinley

A wonderfully in-depth, somewhat sympathetic, and very well presented tome, Margaret Leech’s biography of William McKinley, In The Days of McKinley, presents a wide and deep sweep of late 19^th Century America and the changes (and issues) that we would recognize 100 plus years and two centuries later. Using a variety of sources, including the diary of McKinley’s secretary, George Cortelyou, Leech tells the tale of our 24^th President, who would die at the hands of an assassin near the beginning of his second term, from birth to his tragic death.

In doing so, she provides a detail perspective of a nation that is roused out of an isolationism and into a period of imperialism, brought about by the war with Spain and the resultant occupation of both Cuba and the Philippines, and the challenges of reconciling moral ideals of democracy with the possession of other nation-states. Of note is the tragic and frustrating tale of a military and military bureaucracy, quite frankly soft, that had to be roused into a modern fighting force and establishment. (Of note, McKinley, as she notes in her description of his second inauguration, would be the last of the Union veterans to serve as President.) She also, presents a cast of characters, Mrs Ida McKinley, his invalid, but strong-willed wife, Mark Hanna, an Ohio political boss, and other such as John Hay, who had served under Lincoln and was “a close friend of Garfield” and who watched as a third President he served, died.

At times in the middle part of the book, McKinley lurks in the background, as Leech brings to the foreground the people who would argue and lead and posture both at home and on foreign shores and shape McKinley’s policies and legacy. Yet his will and desire for his policies to be carried out would again surface as the time for action, on the battlefield, in the Congress, and across Washington and the nation came into play.

I very much enjoyed Leech’s work and considered to be one of the best Presidential bios I have so far read. It was published in 1959 by Harper.

Review of Charles W Calhoun’s biography of Benjamin Harrison

Frustration with the secularization of schools? Anger at the restrictiveness of immigration policy? Wrestling over what to do with excessive government funds? Contemporary issues all in our 21^st century America. (Except for the excessive funds.)

Issues in 1890’s America as well, the America that Benjamin Harrison governed from 1888-1892 when he was replaced by the man he had beaten, Grover Cleveland. (The school issue was the establishment of secular schools on Indian reservations to the disappointment of Catholics who had been granted the ability to do so for many years.)

Part of The American President Series, edited by Arthur M Schlesinger, Jr. Calhoun, provides a sympathetic survey of our 23^rd President who governed an emerging America that was increasingly industrial and in which the sectionalism of North and South was replaced by an East-West sectionalism and the growing power of agricultural and mining. Calhoun portrays Harrison as a family man who refused to give into Republican party bosses with party patronage and was considered by some to be cold and aloof. Yet he causes a split with his children in marrying a niece following the death of his wife and his return to private life.

Calhoun’s work is a good introduction to this President that I knew nothing about except that his name graced, at one time, a military installation in central Indiana. Nor did I realize that he was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the first President to die in office.  It also provides a good understanding of the increasingly industrial nature of our nation.