Likewise uncanny is how Harding's reputation as a bad president has been so embellished over the years. It would appear from these facts that he was actually one of the better presidents in the first half of the 20th century.
Instinctively, America understood it as well. There's a reason his passing was genuinely mourned by Americans while that of his progressive predecessor, which happened at about the same time, was barely noted.
Lately I've been considering a personal research project on how public opinion has been shaped in the 20th century. As I grew up, I was basically handed a list of "bad guys": Harding, Strom Thurmond, McCarthy, Nixon, George Wallace, even Reagan. And, of course, I was given a list of "good guys": Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Carter, Martin Luther King, Woodward & Bernstein, etc.
Opinion makers like Walter Lippman, H.L. Mencken, the Alsop brothers, Murrow, Cronkite, and Dan Rather have really decided who was right and who was wrong. I think we've reached a point now where it should be possible to look back and say with confidence: "That one? He was actually a fool. But this guy? He turned out to be right after all."
I didn't see any on the first page of search results, but whenever it says FULL View - as opposed to 'preview', then the entire book is available FREE.
You don't need an e-book reader, you can either get the pdf file or else the online html text version.
Bookmark.
I was fortunate to hear about it a year ago—I think it was our buddy Peter Schiff.
It was also mentioned in the Amity Shlaes book The Forgotten Man.
I believe UE was around 11 or 12% and the top income tax rate was 70%.
This little fact is something the liberals like to ignore as they like to believe the rich never paid their fair share before 1932.