Q: Amity Shlaes - Calvin Coolidge – Intro

A:

• Economic historian; book on the 1930s

• 1920s strong economy; Coolidge gets credit

• Worked under Robert Bartley at Wall Street Journal

• Bartley was like Coolidge – terse, reticent

Q: What were the early influences that shaped Coolidge?

A: 

• The Classics; Coolidge learned Latin

• Framers; Coolidge read the constitution as a boy

• New England background

• Faith – church but without a minister

• Grandmother helped raise him after mother’s death

Q: What was Coolidge’s personality like?

A:

•  Like a banker whose numbers work out

• Under promised, over deliverable

• Good listener

• Quiet, reticent

• Like a good used car salesman that you go back to

Q: What was Coolidge’s political trajectory?

A:

• Worked his way up Republican party

• Mentor: Murray Crane

• Mayor to State Legislature

• State Senate to state senate president

• Lieutenant governor of Massachusetts to governor’s office

• Vice President under Harding to White House

Q: Is Coolidge’s conservatism like today’s conservatism?

A:

• Related but not equivalent

• US best led by example

• Lives by example – country frugal, he was frugal

• Pro-tariff

• Did not trash opponents

• Don’t help the weak by bringing down the strong

Q: What were Coolidge’s main accomplishments?

A:

• Foreign policy – American stands for rule of law

• America as a model – City on the Hill

• Domestic – helped grow the economy

• Tax rates reduced

• Cars, Indoor plumbing, Electricity, Saturday becomes a day off

Q: How did Coolidge view Jews and Judaism?

A:

• Johnson –Reed Immigration – following mood of country

• But not an anti-Semite

• Spoke to Jewish groups

• “I like your people”

• “You take of your own”

• “You are good citizens”

• Torah is the basis of all our law