The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression (Contributions in American History) [Hardcover]

Robert E. Gilbert (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0275979318 | ISBN-13: 978-0275979317 | Publication Date: April 30, 2003

Although Calvin Coolidge is widely judged to have been a weak and even an incompetent president, this study concludes that he was a leader disabled by a crippling emotional breakdown. After an impressive early career, Coolidge assumed the presidency upon the death of Warren Harding. His promising political career suffered a major blow, however, with the death of his favorite child, 16-year-old Calvin Jr., in July 1924. Overwhelmed with grief, Coolidge showed distinct signs of clinical depression. Losing interest in politics, he served out his term as a broken man. This is the first account of Coolidge's life to compare his behavior before and after this tragedy, and the first to consider the importance of Coolidge's mental health in his presidential legacy.

Gilbert carefully documents the dramatic change in Coolidge's leadership style, as well as the changes in his personal behavior. In his early career, Coolidge worked hard, was progressive, and politically astute. When he became Vice President in 1921, he impressed the Washington establishment by being strong and activist. After Harding's death, Coolidge took control of his party, dazzled the press, distanced himself from the Harding scandals, and showed ability in domestic and foreign policy. His son's death would destroy all of this. Gilbert documents Coolidge's subsequent dysfunctional behavior, including sadistic tendencies, rudeness and cruelty to family and aides, and odd interactions with the White House staff.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A tour de force, it will surely transform historical understanding of our 30th president. A one man interdisciplinary team, Gilbert has creatively integrated sophisticated political analysis with astute clinical psychological perceptiveness to demonstrate persuasively that the detached, lackluster, failed leadership of Coolidge's presidency was a consequence of a major depression precipitated by the tragic death of his beloved younger son. This is a remarkable book."-Jerrold M. Post, M.D. Director, Political Psychology Program, George Washington University

Book Description

Demonstrates that Calvin Coolidge suffered from clinical depression after the death of his teenaged son and served out the remainder of his presidency a sick and incapacitated man.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (April 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275979318
• ISBN-13: 978-0275979317
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,671,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very, very interesting, March 6, 2010

By 

Don Incognito - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression (Contributions in American History) (Hardcover)

This is only the second Calvin Coolidge biography I have read, but it was far more insightful. It concentrates on who Coolidge was as a human being rather than on his political career. In popular history, President Coolidge's personality during his presidency (1923-28) was dour and of few words; politically, he was unusually detached, passive and even disinterested in everything going on in the country and the world.
Author Robert Gilbert's thesis is an explanation for that. Calvin Jr., the younger of he president's two sons, died in 1924 after a blister that he got during a tennis match became infected. (This was the pre-antibiotics era.) The president and first lady were distraught, of course; but based on Calvin Sr.'s subsequent behavior, Gilbert believes the former never recovered from Calvin Jr.'s death; specifically, that he was disabled by major depression (due to unresolved grief). This ruined his presidency and made him decline to run for reelection.
Besides the behavior he became most famous for--sleeping most of the time, which is a symptom of depression--and general passivity, the book states that he started displaying strange and unpleasant behaviors with everyone--Mrs. (Grace) Coolidge, his surviving son (John), his Secret Service men, the entire White House staff, etc. His physicians believed he was having (or approaching) a mental breakdown, and didn't understand that it was a crippling episode of depression.
I'd like to own this book, but it's hard to find (probably due only to limited printing) and expensive. (I got it on interlibrary loan.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Research on Silent Cal, February 1, 2009

By 

Dr. Watson - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression (Contributions in American History) (Hardcover)

Professor Gilbert has written an excellent book detailing the depression that Coolidge encountered while in the White House and beyond, after the death of his younger son, Calvin, Jr. The research presented here is ground-breaking, and provides a new and important picture of a president normally thought to be silent, reticent, and unproductive while in public office.

An excellent case is made for Coolidge as an energetic and diligent public servant prior to the death of his youngest son, due to blood poisoning from a blister received, while playing tennis on the White House lawn, wearing shoes without socks.

Coolidge's' abrupt change in demeanor, attitude toward his work, and outlook on life was apparent after the death of his favorite youngest son. This is an important book not to be missed for anyone wanting to know the "real" Coolidge, behind the often mentioned silent mask.

I consider Professor Gilbert to be the first to thoroughly research this aspect of Calvin Coolidge, and have noticed that other historians and doctors are now paying attention to this well-written volume. I found it engaging, factual, and one I could not put down. Highly Recommended.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars glimpse at a slower tempo of American society, June 15, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression (Contributions in American History) (Hardcover)

Calvin Coolidge is barely remembered today, as a minor US President. But for those who are interested in his life, Gilbert gives a retrospective of Coolidge's last years. While it may seem incredible nowadays, given the contemporary intensity of press coverage about the White House, back then things were far more private. So much so that we see how Coolidge's deterioration was largely successfully concealed from the general public.

The book is more than just about Coolidge. It affords us a glimpse into a far slower tempo of American society at its highest levels. With what seems to us like a casual approach to decision making. But remember too that at that time, the US was not the world's pre-eminent superpower. In the book's narrative, what is also striking is how relatively little foreign issues intrude.

Gilbert also supplies in the text copious references to mostly original sources.