The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Peter Hannaford (Author, Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: Past (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884592333
• ISBN-13: 978-1884592331
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #536,914 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars QUOTABLE COOLIDGE BLOWS "SILENT" CAL'S COVER, December 9, 2000

By	James A. Cooke (Quincy, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you know nothing about Calvin Coolidge, then this book - The Quotable Calvin Coolidge -- is the book for you. If, on the other hand, you know President Coolidge to have been a man of integrity, wisdom, and humor -- then, this is the book for that friend of yours who can never see what you see in the 30th president, and, what's more -- won't listen if you try to explain. You know the type: Your friend perhaps admires Jefferson for believing "that government is best that governs least." Then, ridicules `Silent Cal' for showing how it's done!

Editor Peter Hannaford has taken on the task of rounding up all the usual Coolidge quotes as well as providing many that are less familiar. He cites chapter and verse, too, supplying context and date for every quotation. Selections range from a view expressed in a graduation `oration' by 18-year old J. Calvin Coolidge to private remarks to a friend days before his early death in 1933 at age 60. Quotes are arranged alphabetically by subject -- beginning with African Americans and concluding with Zeal. This compilation is a treasure to be mined by speakers, politicians and writers; however, it's a mine field for the ideas of born-again New Deal scholars committed to parroting the narrow views of their mentors bent on belittling "Silent Cal".

The Quotable Calvin Coolidge has a helpful chronology detailing Coolidge's life, beginning in 1872 with his 4th of July birth in Plymouth, Vermont and on through his education and subsequent steady rise in Massachusetts' political ranks to our nation's highest office. There's a 26 page introduction to the man, the political figure and icon of an era. In his long public career, Coolidge often said, "The things I did not say never hurt me." Yet, the things he did say are clearly of service to us today and will remain worth considering, tomorrow.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reassessing "Silent Cal", January 21, 2001

By	Annelise Anderson (Portola Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a fascinating collection of Coolidge quotations with an intriguing introduction by Peter Hannaford. Hannaford points out that the New Dealers stereotyped Coolidge for political reasons, and New Deal historians quoted selectively from William Allen White's two biographies of Coolidge, furthering the stereotype of Coolidge as a failed president, unimaginative, lacking in intellectual curiosity, and unknowledgeable about history--among other faults. The Coolidge reassessment began in 1998--or perhaps really in 1981, when President Reagan hung a portrait of Coolidge, one of his favorite presidents, in the Cabinet Room in the White House. This book gives the reader Coolidge, the man, on many topics. Coolidge wrote all his own speeches and, for a year after leaving the presidency, a five-day-a-week newpaper column. Historians have had to reassess Dwight Eisenhower, and the reassessment of Ronald Reagan is underway. Another confirmation that the accepted wisdom on Republican presidents, especially when they are viewed as not too bright and not too knowledgeable, is usually wrong.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Treasure, July 21, 2004

By	J Keistler "[e-mail]" (Lake Jackson, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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As history finally catches up with reassessing President Coolidge and putting him in his proper place, this small, thin volume of his quotations is a breath of fresh air, indeed, in these days of TV ops and media handling. Presidents are always a product of their times and Coolidge was of his. His calls for simplicity, decency, honesty and character would open a current President up to all sorts of cynics, but they ring true with President Coolidge. I do hope this little tome will help lay to rest many misconceptions. A must read. . .

ADDITION ON 9/9/08: I still have this little book and still treasure my copy. Over the past few years I've purchased several more to give away. So few people have real knowledge of Mr. Coolidge. This book reveals the depth of his feelings, so counter to public lore.