When FDR became president in 1933 he called for “bold, persistent experimentation.” He believed that it was essential to do something!  This was a far cry from Warren Harding, who  said in 1920, “that any experimentation will add to the confusion.  Our best hope lies in the administration of our proven system.”

Upon assuming the office of President in 1923 Calvin Coolidge world take these works very seriously.  He would actually and literally carry out the policies that Harding and Coolidge were elected on.  A policy of NO and of austerity.  It was a far cry from the politics of action what characterizes our modern presidency. 

What it wrought for the nation is still being debated today.  Amity Shlaes gives us a new take on all of it, in her new biography of Coolidge

My conversation with Amity Shlaes: