The Jazz Age President

"Presidents are ranked wrong. In The Jazz Age President: Defending Warren G. Harding, Ryan Walters mounts a case that Harding deserves to move up—and supplies the evidence to make that case strong. -Amity Shlaes, bestselling author of Coolidge He's the butt of political jokes, frequently subjected to ridicule, and almost never absent a "Worst Presidents" list where he most often ends up at the bottom. Historians have labeled him the "Worst President Ever," "Dead Last," "Unfit," and "Incompetent," to name but a few. Many contemporaries were equally cruel. H. L. Mencken called him a "nitwit." To Alice Roosevelt Longworth, he was a "slob." Such is the current reputation of our 29th President, Warren Gamaliel Harding. In an interesting survey in 1982, which divided the scholarly respondents into "conservative" and "liberal" categories, both groups picked Harding as the worst President. But historian Ryan Walters shows that Harding, a humble man from Marion, Ohio, has been unfairly remembered. He quickly fixed an economy in depression and started the boom of the Roaring Twenties, healed a nation in the throes of social disruption, and reversed America’s interventionist foreign policy.

Tells the story of Florence Harding's rise from young unwed mother to First Lady and reveals her influence behind Harding's ascent to America's most scandal-ridden presidency and her role in his death. The drama of her life is set against the stage of the White House in the Jazz Age, and involves exciting elements such as mistresses, blackmail, poisoning, and opium addicts. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"Presidents are ranked wrong. In Harding: The Jazz Age President, Ryan Walters mounts a case that Harding deserves to move up—and supplies the evidence to make that case strong. -Amity Shlaes, bestselling author of Coolidge He's the butt of political jokes, frequently subjected to ridicule, and almost never absent a "Worst Presidents" list where he most often ends up at the bottom. Historians have labeled him the "Worst President Ever," "Dead Last," "Unfit," and "Incompetent," to name but a few. Many contemporaries were equally cruel. H. L. Mencken called him a "nitwit." To Alice Roosevelt Longworth, he was a "slob." Such is the current reputation of our 29th President, Warren Gamaliel Harding. In an interesting survey in 1982, which divided the scholarly respondents into "conservative" and "liberal" categories, both groups picked Harding as the worst President. But historian Ryan Walters shows that Harding, a humble man from Marion, Ohio, has been unfairly remembered. He quickly fixed an economy in depression and started the boom of the Roaring Twenties, healed a nation in the throes of social disruption, and reversed America’s interventionist foreign policy.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 When World War I ended in November 1918, the world was different from what it had been in 1914. The general mindset before the war was that war was generally good, but the full-scale industrialized war that broke out in the summer of 1914 destroyed that notion forever. #2 The elation in the streets in the fall of 1918 was due in part to the fact that no one had believed the war would end so quickly. The still-green American doughboys, arriving by the thousands every day, had made the difference. #3 The end of the war was celebrated, but it was not the only thing that everyone was celebrating. The Spanish flu had devastated troop encampments in Europe and then spread worldwide. It is thought that more than a quarter of the entire American population was infected, with as many as 675,000 dead in influenza hospitals. #4 The Treaty of Versailles was extremely difficult to ratify in the United States. It redrew the map of Europe, created nine new nations, placed the blame for the war on Germany, and created Wilson’s League of Nations, a precursor to the United Nations.

The early nineteenth century in the United States was a study of contrasts. On the one hand, the Jazz Age brought cultural liberation, vivacity, and reckless consumption; on the other, the Great Depression brought poverty and desperation to millions. Explore these periods in American history through the eyes of the people who lived them.

The President’s Daughter, America’s first major kiss-and-tell political biography, caused a sensation when it was published in 1928. Nan Britton described her six-year affair with the late Warren G. Harding, most famously including trysts in a White House coat closet. President Harding’s paternity of Britton’s daughter Elizabeth Ann, born in 1919, was proved by DNA testing in 2015.

An award-winning historian surveys the astonishing cast of characters who helped turn Manhattan into the world capital of commerce, communication and entertainment --

Veteran journalist Mitgang has written a flavorful account of New York City politics during the 1920s Jazz Age centering around the intersecting careers of the city's popular mayor, Jimmy Walker, and the state's patrician governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt.