What can you say about a man known for saying very little?
Our guest, New York Times bestselling author and journalist Amity Shlaes has quite a bit to say. She joins us for a look at the nation’s 30th president, Calvin Coolidge.
Shlaes argues that “Silent Cal” had more of a legacy than being a man of little words.
“People think that because Coolidge said little ---"Silent Cal"--- that he was worth little. And we at The Coolidge Foundation (and I do my research) have discovered that Coolidge is a wonderful president, a model for modern American.”
Shlaes goes on to comment on the idea that Calvin Coolidge was a “quaint” president.
“This way of making him quaint, depicting him as a throwback, something out of a Victorian story... is a way of reducing him. He played to type for fun in the media (he’s not unsophisticated and he was a type: a New Englander). [But] He also was extremely sophisticated in the way he operated to achieve his end, which was to reduce government and honor the office of the presidency.”
