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Amity Shlaes

Biography

Amity Shlaes

Amity Shlaes is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: THE FORGOTTEN MAN: A New History of the Great Depression, THE FORGOTTEN MAN GRAPHIC EDITION, COOLIDGE, and THE GREEDY HAND: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy. 

Miss Shlaes chairs the board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and the Manhattan Institute's Hayek Book Prize, and serves as a scholar at the King's College. A former member of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, Miss Shlaes published a weekly syndicated column for more than a decade, appearing first in the Financial Times, then in Bloomberg.

Amity Shlaes

Books by Amity Shlaes

by Amity Shlaes - History, Nonfiction, Politics

Many Americans are attracted to socialism and economic redistribution, while opponents of those ideas argue for purer capitalism. In the 1960s, Americans sought the same goals many seek now: an end to poverty, higher standards of living for the middle class, a better environment, and more access to health care and education. Then, too, we debated socialism and capitalism, public sector reform versus private sector advancement. Ironically, Amity Shlaes argues, the costs of entitlement commitments made a half century ago preclude the very reforms that Americans will need in coming decades. In GREAT SOCIETY, Shlaes shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

by Amity Shlaes - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Calvin Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls. The shy Vermonter, nicknamed "Silent Cal," has long been dismissed as quiet and passive. History has remembered the decade in which he served as a frivolous, extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes provides a fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president.