Calvin Coolidge
Born July 4, 1872 (Plymouth Notch, Vermont)
Died January 5, 1933 (Northampton, Massachusetts)
U.S. president
President Calvin Coolidge presided over the Roaring Twenties, a decade when a thriving U.S. economy was sometimes called Coolidge Prosperity. Thrust into the presidency when Warren G. Harding (1865–1923; served 1921–23; see entry) died suddenly, Coolidge soon had to confront several scandals involving members of Harding's administration. His quick, firm response helped to restore the public's faith in the nation's highest office. A man of few words, he was known as "Silent Cal," Coolidge was also a leader of little action. Deeply conservative, he believed that government should stay as far out of business affairs as possible. Although some blame the laissez-faire (hands-off), probusiness policies of Coolidge's presidency for the stock market crash (which occurred after he left office), the majority of U.S. citizens approved of his ideas at the time.
Hard Work and Thrift
Coolidge's ancestors arrived from Great Britain in the seventeenth century, and one of them served as a soldier in the American Revolution (1775–83). The future president was
born John Calvin Coolidge (he later dropped his first name) in the quiet Vermont village of Plymouth Notch. His father, also named John Calvin Coolidge, worked at various times as a farmer and shopkeeper and held a number of local political offices.
