Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The life story of an unsung American hero, September 15, 1997
By A Customer
President Calvin Coolidge was a good man and great President who deserves to remembered for more than his reticence. Read here the life story of the President who grew up learning that hard work and a thoughtful outlook are the keys to success. He cut taxes four times and vetoed agricultural subsidies twice. He was unusually tolerant of minorities for his time. The story of President Coolidge is one that deserves to be read. Conservatives and libertarians will find his story especially appropriate for their children.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous, April 8, 2004
By A Customer
"The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge" is a fabulous autobiography. Calvin Coolidge was a good man and a good writer, and in his autobiography, Cooidge talks about growing up, his career in law and politics, his family, and everything anybody would want to learn about President Coolidge. People who are interested in becoming President should read Calvin Coolidge's autobiography: Coolidge shared with his readers some duties of the President and what seeking a third term can do to you. How a President is elected has changed since Coolidge's time, but Coolidge became President because of the death of his sucessor, Warren G. Harding. Even though Coolidge shared his opinion, anybody in the White House because of the death of their sucessor should take Coolidge's opinion. Calvin Coolidge was a good man, and there are lessons everyone could benefit from by reading his autobiography.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Like Ronald Reagan: I can't help but admire this man, November 8, 2008
Some years ago, I learned that Calvin Coolidge was one of the presidents that Ronald Reagan most admired. That puzzled me, since what little I knew of Coolidge was not necessarily admirable. To whit: He was known as "Silent Cal," because he didn't have much to say; and he was said to be a "do nothing" president, because he didn't accomplish much. So, when I ran across this book I decided to see if I could learn more about Calvin Coolidge and, hopefully, discover why he was held in such high esteem by America's 40th President.
In answer to the first question: I don't think I learned a lot about Calvin Coolidge. it is abundantly clear that Coolidge wrote this book himself, no ghost writers here, but, he wrote it in a most unusual way. It is almost as if Coolidge, a very private and unusually modest man, was scanning a journal he had kept all his life and briefly describing what he considered to be the high points of his life. As a result, the reader seems to learn much about those who encountered Coolidge or worked with him throughout his life, and what Coolidge thought of them, and something about his major accomplishments. You see what Coolidge saw and see what Coolidge did, but little is learned about the inner man except as deduced from the sage philosophical observations which he scatters throughout his book. In short: the writing seems superficial. It tells us how Calvin Coolidge spent his "dash," but it is hard to believe that the life of this man, who rose from a modest beginning to become President of the United States, could be captured in just 247 pages with extra-wide margins and double spaced text.
If the reader pays close attention to the values expressed by Coolidge throughout his book, however, he or she can clearly understand why he was so much admired by Ronald Reagan. The values expressed by Coolidge are essentially the same as Reagan's - the idealism, optimism, and "classical liberalism" of an earlier age -- as exemplified by the rural, down to earth, values of the hard working Americans of his time. To paraphrase a few: All kinds of work from the most menial to the most exalted are alike honorable. There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within one's means. Wealth comes from industry and from the hard experience of human toil. Any reward that is worth having only comes to the industrious. We are all fallible, but experience should teach us not to repeat our errors. Expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. There is evil in the world, but good predominates all around us.
And, in the realm of government and politics: People should manage their government, and not be managed by it. In the discharge of the duties of the office [of the President] there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that some one else can do for you. Otherwise, the President will be entirely devoted to trifling details and there will be little opportunity to give the necessary consideration to policies of larger importance. Tasks must be entrusted to competent men [and women] of sufficient ability so that they can solve all the problems that arise under their jurisdiction. Large concerns are necessary for the progress in which both capital and labor have a common interest. The government should not be blamed because everyone is not prosperous. Nothing is more dangerous to good government than great power in improper hands. And finally: 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.
What struck me hardest in this book, however, was the Boston Policeman's strike in 1905 and Massachusetts' Governor Coolidge's reaction to it. The police force was attempting to create a union and join the American Federation of Labor (AFL), although all had agreed not to do so upon joining the force. When they were prevented from doing so, they struck, whereupon the Police Commissioner fired the leaders of the insurrection and, he, himself, was forced to resign. Governor Coolidge reinstated the Police Commissioner and helped those fired to find other jobs, but would never again let them serve as police officers. He did so saying that, "There is no right to strike against the public safety by any body, any time, any where." [Shades of Reagan's later firing of the Air Traffic Controllers in 1981]
I wasn't impressed by this book, but the wise advice and down-to-earth philosophy of life expressed therein is worth at least four stars. And, I can't help but agree with Ronald Reagan: Calvin Coolidge is to be much admired. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure that Ronald Reagan would have been the great president he was if he hadn't admired men such as this.
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