Niall Palmer’s book is the most recent in a long line of text scrutinizing one of the most important decades in the history of the United States. Unlike any of his predecessors, however, Palmer chooses to focus his narrative upon the two Presidential administrations of the period, Harding and Coolidge. This move, in itself adds a clarity to the analysis essentially missing in similar studies by Colin Gordon, David J. Goldberg, Alan Brinkley and George E. Mowry. Arguably the most accessible and detailed of all the texts previously available on Twenties America were Paul A. Carter’s two publications, The Twenties in America (1969) and Another Part of the Twenties (1977). But even these do not match Palmer’s concision and balance – regarding an often controversial and volatile era of American politics, where balance and impartiality are necessary tools for an historian if his reader is to make any sense of it.

Palmer addresses this issue in his Introduction: ‘Published works on the Twenties are in plentiful supply, but serious scholarly analyses of the politics of the period are less numerous.’ [2] He cites the overlooking of this period to be premature, and sets his book apart from others by not dealing with the Wall Street Crash, thus avoiding the trap of seeing the Twenties as ‘one long prelude to the Great Depression.’  [2] The result of this is that Palmer is able to offer an original and fascinating analysis of Harding, whom he refers to as an ‘underrated president’ [3] As well as succinctly examining the traditional Twenties themes of prohibition, the post-war era, and racial unrest, Palmer details Harding’s battle to stabilize the nation, but the unwillingness of his people to see things his way, forced into seeking ‘unsatisfactory compromises.’ [37] The often confusing and divisive issue of The Emergency Quotas Act - which put a cap on the thousands of immigrants flooding into the US - is clearly explained, and once more, Harding defended, and Palmer shows the reader the impossible task this President faced in implementing his own ideology – shown to be attempting to promote equality, upon the distrustful, prejudiced members of both his cabinet and nation at that time.

America’s links with the outside world are deftly examined in a chapter on foreign policy, as is the stalling of normalcy with the death of Harding, and the accession of Coolidge. Consistently referring to newspapers and journals of the time, Palmer illustrates the disparity between popular opinion and the political efforts of Harding and Coolidge. Sections on ‘Culture and Society’ between political description keep the reader informed of the literary and artistic activities as they occurred, which nicely contextualizes the work of frustrated writers such as John Dos Passos: ‘who railed at the shrinking status of the ‘ant-like’ individual before the might of giant factories and corporations.’ [112] The growth of jazz and black American writing is equally well contextualized, against the backdrop of Ku Klux Klan lynching and social unrest.

This highly effective book successfully differentiates between the Harding and Coolidge administrations, Harding’s policies often proving divisive and radical in their treatment of race, the World Court, shipping subsides, disarmament and the veteran’s bonus, Coolidge on the other hand emerging as a conservative leader ‘undisturbed by changing political and social realities.’[180] The concision and clarity of the narrative should make this important book invaluable to scholars and students alike.