Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929

Four years ago, the Library of Congress launched the American Memory project, "an effort to digitize and deliver electronically the distinctive, historical Americana holdings at the library." This section of American Memory, titled "Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929," is an excellent example of the many resource tools that are now available on the Web through this ambitious project. With materials from the library's extensive collections of manuscripts, photographs, books, and even audio tapes of speeches, the site reviews the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, a period marked by remarkable prosperity and the birth of a new consumer economy. This site will be of particular interest to those interested in the economic and political forces that helped to shape American society in the early twentieth century.