Shlaes rejects this. Director of an initiative on individualism
at the George W. Bush Institute, she’s no stranger to right-wing
economics. Her 2008 book, "The Forgotten Man: A New History of
The Great Depression", dared criticize Herbert Hoover – a stodgy
free-marketeer – for what she sees as his liberal response to
the 20th century’s most severe downturn. To her, Coolidge, a
fiscally stingy president who lived in a duplex after leaving
the White House and didn’t think it was appropriate for the
federal government to provide disaster relief, is Superman.
“Coolidge was a rare kind of hero: a minimalist president, an
economic general of budgeting and tax cuts,” she writes.
“Coolidge made a virtue of inaction.” At least her sketch of the
30th president’s early life is uncontroversial. Born in 1872 in
Vermont, Coolidge was a middling student, the last attorney who
became commander-in-chief who “read law” in a firm instead of
attending law school. In a move that conservatives compare to
Ronald Reagan’s standoff w