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U.S. History 1877-Present 7: Presidents of the 1920s 7894 Views
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Description:
Today we'll learn about what happens when you let a vacuum be president. Spoiler alert, it doesn't work nearly as well as electing a guy who literally has the word "cool" in his name.
Transcript
- 00:03
After president warren g harding made his early exit from the [Warren harding appears at desk]
- 00:07
White House Vice President Calvin Coolidge stepped up to the plate
- 00:10
Coolidge was known for not being all that cool silent Cal as he was sometimes [Coolidge swinging baseball bat]
- 00:16
called was known for being quiet and stern not exactly the guy anybody wanted
- 00:21
it they are birthday parties unlike Harding Coolidge was known for [Calvin at a birthday party]
Full Transcript
- 00:25
being honest and totally uncorrupt which really helped the Republicans dodged a
- 00:29
bullet when he ran and won for re-election in 1924 like Harding [Bullets falling]
- 00:34
Coolidge was a big-time economic conservative one of his more famous
- 00:37
quotes was that the business of America is business Coolidge was all about
- 00:42
Harding's pro-business free-market policies and he kept Treasury secretary
- 00:46
Andrew Mellon on to make sure those policies stayed in place what followed
- 00:50
was a decade of economic growth in which the rich got fabulously wealthy but the [Man wearing top hat with stacks of cash]
- 00:55
middle class well they did all right to score one for the booze huazi mass
- 00:59
production techniques made convenience products like cars washing machines and [People working in car factories]
- 01:03
fridges cheap and available to most Americans which seriously raised the
- 01:08
standard of living so with the glaring exception of farmers who were getting [Car driving by a farm]
- 01:12
poorer by the day many Americans were doing really well Coolidge got a lot of
- 01:16
credit with his years in office being dubbed a time of Coolidge prosperity in
- 01:21
1928 Coolidge retired to civilian life leaving office is a highly popular [Coolidge on a lilo in a pool]
- 01:25
figure among the American people turns out people didn't care if he was
- 01:29
fun at parties they just wanted to you know not be broke next up in the white [Girl dancing]
- 01:33
house was a fella by the name of Herbert Hoover well to say that Hoover was
- 01:37
respected would be an understatement some even called him the greatest man of
- 01:41
his generation in some places golden statues were made [Statue of Coolidge appears]
- 01:44
of him and people worshipped him as a god okay that last one might be an
- 01:47
exaggeration but the no joke people love the who Hoover was a former mining
- 01:51
engineer war relief administrator and Secretary of Commerce who helped stave [Hoover's resume appears]
- 01:56
off a post-world War one depression by successfully encouraging leading
- 02:00
businessmen to invest rather than cut cost Herbert was also a self-made [Hoover speaking to business man by the lake]
- 02:04
millionaire but despite this he wasn't its hardcore about the government being
- 02:08
totally hands-off when it came to business some think of him is the last
- 02:12
progressive Republicans since he believed that the
- 02:15
private market could work even better with a little encouragement and guidance [Hoover uses foam hand to stroke business man]
- 02:18
from the government as a presidential candidate in 1928 Hoover confidently
- 02:23
declared we in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than
- 02:28
ever before in the history of any land we shall tune with help of God be inside
- 02:33
of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation while the American [Hoover giving a speech]
- 02:37
people ate this up mixing poverty towns pretty great right well Hoover actually [Girl eating a cake]
- 02:42
ended up winning more electoral votes than any previous presidential candidate
- 02:45
in American history Wow what a success story a booming
- 02:49
economy a national mandate what a great way to start a presidency what could
- 02:54
possibly rain on this parade oh yeah the Great Depression well in [People marching in a parade]
- 02:58
October 1929 just months after Hoover took the White House the stock market
- 03:02
collapsed bringing in the worst economic crisis in American history who which
- 03:07
Hoover said you guys didn't think I literally meant that we were going to
- 03:10
end poverty right to which Americans said yeah yeah we did - which Hoover [Americans in a line outside a soup kitchen]
- 03:16
said well yeah this is kind of awkward awkward
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