President Warren Harding
There isn't much that is spoken about President Warren Harding. There is not a particular Historical Narrative that is really spoken about him. However he was very much the president that was Anti-Wilson. He was everything that President Wilson was not.
Wilson was egotistical, a thinker ahead of his time and someone didn't really care about being well liked in the country. He was the kind of man who made sure things were going to go his way and Harding wasn't like that at all. He was well-liked and over all he tried to portray himself as the average American man.
He won the nation over by the promise of normalcy. To return the nation to just focus upon itself instead of worrying about foreign powers and foreign issues.
However, his good nature and intentions were soon found out after his sudden death in California. It was after his death that many scandals were discovered. The scandals are as follows.
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident which leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and two other locations in California to private oil companies at lower costs without bidding from competitors.
The scandal wasn't discovered until after his death and even if he was caught, at the time it was not normal to impeach a president. Plus during his presidency, the economy was doing fairly well.
During Harding's Presidency, the position of Vice President was being taken more seriously and it was being reevaluated at this time as well.
President Calvin Coolidge
President Calvin Coolidge's presidency was very much overshadowed by the roaring 20s. There was not a lot that he could do. The government was very much laizze-faire at the time and was hands off government.
Calvin Coolidge was more worried about being well liked, being respectable and dignified than he was concerned with affairs that were going on in the nation. It just seemed like everything was doing well. The reality of it was that after the war, there were industries that were not doing well such coal mining due to oil being used, ship building, agriculture was greatly in debt and instead of using railroads people were using automobiles.
In class we discussed a few more things such as Historical Scale, Macro-history, Micro-history and Historical Simultaneity.
Historical Scale is the level in which history is presented.
Macro-history is the big picture. It is the story that high school teachers give their students. An example of Macro-history would be a book on the history of the world.
Micro-History is very detailed, it's condensed and it can tell people larger things about events. An example of this would be a dissertation where one just focuses on something very specific.
History Simultaneity is when two major events occur at the time but are not necessarily related. One does not necessarily cause the other to occur.
I believe that both presidents were very much overshadowed by the period of time they lived in. While Harding's scandals weren't discovered until after he passed away, he was well liked by the public like his successor Calvin Coolidge. They both presented themselves as dignified and unfortunately is due to the overshadowing of the roaring 20s that they were sort of pushed into the background of the decades.
People didn't want to hear about how virtuous or how dignified a president was, they wanted to hear about the gangsters and the bootlegging which were prominent during this time as well. I'll discuss gangsters and bootlegging in a later blog.
Wilson was egotistical, a thinker ahead of his time and someone didn't really care about being well liked in the country. He was the kind of man who made sure things were going to go his way and Harding wasn't like that at all. He was well-liked and over all he tried to portray himself as the average American man.
He won the nation over by the promise of normalcy. To return the nation to just focus upon itself instead of worrying about foreign powers and foreign issues.
However, his good nature and intentions were soon found out after his sudden death in California. It was after his death that many scandals were discovered. The scandals are as follows.
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident which leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming and two other locations in California to private oil companies at lower costs without bidding from competitors.
The scandal wasn't discovered until after his death and even if he was caught, at the time it was not normal to impeach a president. Plus during his presidency, the economy was doing fairly well.
During Harding's Presidency, the position of Vice President was being taken more seriously and it was being reevaluated at this time as well.
President Calvin Coolidge
President Calvin Coolidge's presidency was very much overshadowed by the roaring 20s. There was not a lot that he could do. The government was very much laizze-faire at the time and was hands off government.
Calvin Coolidge was more worried about being well liked, being respectable and dignified than he was concerned with affairs that were going on in the nation. It just seemed like everything was doing well. The reality of it was that after the war, there were industries that were not doing well such coal mining due to oil being used, ship building, agriculture was greatly in debt and instead of using railroads people were using automobiles.
In class we discussed a few more things such as Historical Scale, Macro-history, Micro-history and Historical Simultaneity.
Historical Scale is the level in which history is presented.
Macro-history is the big picture. It is the story that high school teachers give their students. An example of Macro-history would be a book on the history of the world.
Micro-History is very detailed, it's condensed and it can tell people larger things about events. An example of this would be a dissertation where one just focuses on something very specific.
History Simultaneity is when two major events occur at the time but are not necessarily related. One does not necessarily cause the other to occur.
I believe that both presidents were very much overshadowed by the period of time they lived in. While Harding's scandals weren't discovered until after he passed away, he was well liked by the public like his successor Calvin Coolidge. They both presented themselves as dignified and unfortunately is due to the overshadowing of the roaring 20s that they were sort of pushed into the background of the decades.
People didn't want to hear about how virtuous or how dignified a president was, they wanted to hear about the gangsters and the bootlegging which were prominent during this time as well. I'll discuss gangsters and bootlegging in a later blog.
I would absolutely disagree with you - there is an absolute historical narrative about Harding. That he was elected because he was the antidote to Wilson; his "normalcy" was ill-defined and that his administration was full of scandal and corruption.
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