History of the United States II / Unit 9 USH2 1241 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
What Coolidge Said
The idea
Coolidge's sentence is one of the most quoted in American history, and it is usually quoted wrong. The anchor gives both forms. What he said was that the chief business of the American people is business. What people remember is that the business of America is business. The remembered version sounds like a creed about government; the original describes what occupied the American people.
In practice
Two sentences side by side, one said and one remembered.
Where people slip
The confusion to avoid is building an argument on a quotation without checking it. The difference is small in words and real in meaning, and the anchor itself keeps both forms so the student can see it. Coolidge's policies did favour business, as the next entry shows, but the misquotation alone does not prove it.
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