Ferrell, Robert H. The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.

Calvin Coolidge, a terse Vermonter and Amherst graduate, was president from 1923 through 1929.  This was an era marked by explosive increases in the number of telephones, automobiles, and radio receivers.  A Republican governing during an era of widespread prosperity, Coolidge’s fiscal policy emphasized reducing the deficit.  During these years Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon inaugurated a program of substantial income tax and estate tax cuts intended to promote investment by the wealthy. As Ferrell describes, however, the Federal Reserve Policy of the late 1920s was characterized by complacency at a time when action was desperately needed and soon after the Coolidge years America was plunged into the Great Depression.  The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge by Robert H. Ferrell is part of the American Presidency series published by University Press of Kansas.  The series currently covers the first forty-one presidencies from George Washington (in office from 1789-1797) through George Herbert Walker Bush (in office 1989-1993).With several recent additions, the library now has the entire series as part of its circulating collection.

Buck Berry