Calvin Coolidge: The Man Who Believed in Doing Less | Full Biography #30

At 2:47 in the morning on August 3, 1923, in a Vermont farmhouse lit by a kerosene lamp, a notary public swore in his own son as President of the United States. Calvin Coolidge then went back to bed. In this episode: Calvin Coolidge, from a general store in Plymouth Notch to the White House. We follow his slow climb up the political ladder, the Boston police strike that made him famous, the night-time oath, the tax cuts and budget surpluses of the 1920s, the death of his son, immigration and the farm crisis, "I do not choose to run," and how historians judge him after the crash that came months after he left office. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open: 2:47 a.m. 3:10 A Vermont boyhood, 1872–1891 8:21 Amherst, the law, and Grace, 1891–1905 13:17 One rung at a time, 1906–1918 18:30 The Boston police strike, 1919 23:00 The vice president, 1920–1923 28:15 The oath, the election, and a death in the family, 1923–1924 33:14 Taxes, budgets, and "Silent Cal," 1925–1929 40:07 The limits of a small government, 1924–1928 44:58 "I do not choose to run," 1927–1932 49:11 Death, memory, and the verdict SOURCES: •Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge (1929) •Amity Shlaes, Coolidge (2013) •Robert Sobel, Coolidge: An American Enigma (1998) •Robert H. Ferrell, The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge (1998) •Miller Center, University of Virginia: Calvin Coolidge •Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation (coolidgefoundation.org); Vermont State Historic Sites — Plymouth Notch •Forbes Library, Northampton — Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum •U.S. Senate (senate.gov) and History, Art & Archives of the U.S. House (history.house.gov) IMAGES: Library of Congress (Harris & Ewing, National Photo Company, Bain News Service, FSA/OWI and other collections), Wikimedia Commons and other public-domain archives. Background landscapes: 19th-century landscape paintings. Images used under Creative Commons licenses: •"Plymouth Notch Cemetery" by redjar, CC BY-SA 2.0 •"Black River Academy" by Tyler Goodrich, CC BY-SA 3.0 MUSIC (public-domain recordings via Wikimedia Commons): Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata (I); Satie, Gymnopédies No. 1 and 2 (Michael Laucke); Brahms, Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2; Chopin, Nocturnes Op. 55 No. 1 and No. 21 in C minor (Diana Hughes); Grieg, Peer Gynt: Morning Mood and The Death of Aase (Musopen Symphony); Bach, Air (U.S. Air Force Strings); Dvořák, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World": Largo. Was Coolidge's quiet, small-government approach wisdom or neglect? Tell us in the comments, and tell us which president you want next. #CalvinCoolidge #AmericanHistory #Presidents