Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Coolidge by Robert Sobel ISBN: 0-89526-247-9 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.52 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The real Coolidge
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Much Needed Cure For The Usual Coolidge Dogma
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Coolidge: Public Servant; King of Dry Humor
Comment: 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.
 |
Title: An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland by H. Paul Jeffers ISBN: 0380805715 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 22 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive by Joan Hoff Wilson, Oscar Handlin ISBN: 0881337056 Publisher: Waveland Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character by Alyn Brodsky ISBN: 0312268831 Publisher: Truman Talley Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
 |
Title: Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans L. Trefousse ISBN: 0393317420 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
 |
Title: Grant by Jean Edward Smith ISBN: 0684849275 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 09 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
