This is a new release of the original 1926 edition.

"It was my hope to produce a book that would not only have some historical interest, but would be useful for those in public life, in educational work, in preparation for citizen­ship, and would be especially a book that parents would wish their children to read." —President Calvin Coolidge on his autobiography Today Americans of all backgrounds are on the hunt for a different politi­cal model. In fact, such a model awaits them, if only they turn their eyes to their own past . . . to America's thirtieth president, Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge's masterful autobiography offers urgent lessons for our age of exploding debt, increasingly centralized power, and fierce partisan division. This expanded and annotated volume, edited by Coolidge biographer Amity Shlaes and authorized by the Coolidge family, is the definitive edition of the text that presidential historian Craig Fehrman calls "the forgotten classic of presidential writing." To read this volume is to understand the tragic extent to which historians underrate President Coolidge. The Coolidge who emerges in these pages is a model of character, principle, and humility—rare qualities in Washington, then as now. A man of great faith, Coolidge told Americans: "Men do not make laws. They do but discover them." Although he emphasized economics, Coolidge insisted on the importance of "things of the spirit." At the height of his popularity, he chose not to run again when his reelection was all but assured. In this autobiography, Coolidge explains his mindset: "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." For all his modesty, Coolidge left an expansive legacy—one we would do well to study today. Shlaes and ­coeditor ­Matthew Denhart draw out the lessons from Coolidge's life and career in an enlightening introduction and annotations to Coolidge's text. To aid Coolidge scholars young and old, the editors have also assembled nearly three dozen photographs, several of Coolidge's greatest speeches, a timeline of Coolidge's life, and afterwords by former Vermont governor James H. Douglas and two of Coolidge's great-grandchildren, Jennifer Coolidge Harville and Christopher Coolidge Jeter. This autobiography combats the myths about one of our most misunderstood presidents. It also shows us how much we still have to learn from Calvin Coolidge.

This vintage book contains a detailed biography of Calvin Coolidge. John Calvin Coolidge Jr. (1872–1933) served as the President of the United States between 1923 and 1929. Originally a Republican lawyer from Vermont, he worked his way up the political ladder before becoming the governor of Massachusetts. He was elected as the vice president of the United States after his decisive response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919, and succeeded president Warren G. Harding upon his death in 1923. Contents include: “Yankee Ancestry and Vermont Environment”, “Birth and Boyhood”, “Preparing for College”, “Early Days in Northampton”, “The Horizon Widens”, “Up The Political Ladder”, “A Friend Appears”, “Lieutenant Governor”, “Governor of Massachusetts”, “The Boston Police Strike of 1919”, “In National Politics”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction. “Calvin Coolidge - The Man From Vermont” was first published in 1939.