“Drawing on fresh archival material and extensive access to Carter and his family, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Alter tells the epic story of a man of faith and his improbable journey from barefoot boy in the vicious Jim Crow South to global icon. We learn how Carter evolved from a timid child into an ambitious naval nuclear engineer and an indefatigable born-again governor; how as a president he failed politically amid the bad economy of the 1970s and the seizure of hostages in Iran but succeeded in engineering peace between Israel and Egypt, amassing a historic environmental record, moving the government from tokenism to diversity, setting a new global standard for human rights, and normalizing relations with China, among dozens of other unheralded achievements. After leaving office, Carter revolutionized the postpresidency with the bold global accomplishments of the Carter center”--Cover.

The definitive history of the Carter Administration from a top White House advisor—drawing from his extensive and exclusive notes. Stuart Eizenstat was at Jimmy Carter’s side from his political rise in Georgia through four years in the White House, where he served as Chief Domestic Policy Adviser. Famous for the legal pads he took to every meeting, he draws on more than 5,000 pages of notes—and hundreds of interviews with top officials—to write the comprehensive history of this underappreciated president. Eizenstat reveals how Carter brokered peace between Israel and Egypt; what led to the return of the Panama Canal, and how Carter made human rights a presidential imperative. He follows Carter’s passing of America’s first comprehensive energy policy, and his deregulation of the oil, gas, transportation, and communications industries. And he details the creation of the modern vice-presidency. Eizenstat also details Carter’s many missteps, including the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Though Carter idealism sometimes hurt him, his willingness to tackle intractable problems led to major, long-lasting accomplishments.

In Keeping Faith, originally published in 1982, President Carter provides a candid account of his time in the Oval Office, detailing the hostage crisis in Iran, his triumph at the Camp David Middle East peace summit, his relationships with world leaders, and even glimpses into his private world. “Responsible, truthful, intelligent, earnest, rational, purposeful. Thus the man: thus the book” (The Washington Post).

The maverick politician from Georgia who rode the post- Watergate wave into office but whose term was consumed by economic and international crises A peanut farmer from Georgia, Jimmy Carter rose to national power through mastering the strategy of the maverick politician. As the face of the "New South," Carter's strongest support emanated from his ability to communicate directly to voters who were disaffected by corruption in politics. But running as an outsider was easier than governing as one, as Princeton historian Julian E. Zelizer shows in this examination of Carter's presidency. Once in power, Carter faced challenges sustaining a strong political coalition, as he focused on policies that often antagonized key Democrats, whose support he desperately needed. By 1980, Carter stood alone in the Oval Office as he confronted a battered economy, soaring oil prices, American hostages in Iran, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Carter's unpopularity enabled Ronald Reagan to achieve a landslide victory, ushering in a conservative revolution. But during Carter's post-presidential career, he has emerged as an important voice for international diplomacy and negotiation, remaking his image as a statesman for our time.

A biography of the former president uses interviews and research to draw a fresh portrait of the human rights activist and traces the religious and political forces that shaped him

An assessment of the events that led up to Jimmy Carter's infamous 1979 "malaise" speech places it against a backdrop of such events as the gas crisis and the Iran-hostage situation while explaining that the speech had far greater relevance than its reception reflected, in an account that also claims the speech inadvertently set a course for the conservative movement. Reprint.

Jimmy Carter was, according to Erwin Hargrove, the first modern Democratic president to be substantially ahead of the party coalition. Concerned with issues of the future -- inflation, the need for tax reform, energy shortages -- Carter anticipated many questions that are only now being addressed, nearly a decade after his troubled tenure in office.The years 1976 to 1980 were difficult years for a Democrat to be president -- especially difficult for a southern moderate who viewed the world in Wilsonian terms and who was politically unaligned, essentially an outsider in his party and in Washington. But Carter's inability to read or manipulate the political scene was not the only problem to beleaguer his presidency. Events such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the capture of American hostages in Iran also worked against Carter, creating situations in which no amount of political acumen could have salvaged his presidency.Hargrove places Carter in historical perspective. Examining his frequently overlooked successes, as well as his failures, Hargrove analyzes both the content and the methods of Carter's policy leadership. His style of leadership is studied in the light of his beliefs and values, and of his problem-solving skills and experience.This profile draws heavily upon interviews with members of Carter's White House staff. In a consideration for Carter's domestic, economic, and foreign policies, Hargrove shows the congruence of purpose, politics, and process as a president shapes decision making. Because Carter was skilled at solving specific problems, he achieved notable successes -- the Panama Canal Treaty, the Camp David Accord, and the SALT II talks -- when he could keep matters in his own hands. Yet, despite such policy successes, his inability to build strong coalitions and delegate authority, exacerbated by uncontrollable world events, doomed Carter to political defeat.Throughout Jimmy Carter as President, Hargrove emphasizes that in our assessment of presidents, we should evaluate skill within the historical context and thereby better understanding the ingredients of presidential success. Hargrove's effective and extensive use of interviews proves the advantages of integrating oral history into scholarly research and writing.

In nine detailed case studies based on interviews with participants and on recently released documents in the Carter presidential library, Robert Strong carefully examines how the thirty-ninth president of the United States addressed and accomplished the work of foreign policy during his term. Working in the World effectively argues for substantial reevaluation of the conventional wisdom about Carter’s weak foreign policy performance and questions how we should formulate our earliest appraisals of presidential success in the conduct of foreign affairs.

“Important . . . [a] landmark presidential biography . . . Bird is able to build a persuasive case that the Carter presidency deserves this new look.”—The New York Times Book Review An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter’s presidential legacy—from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of American Prometheus Four decades after Ronald Reagan’s landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter’s one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Kai Bird deftly unfolds the Carter saga as a tragic tipping point in American history. As president, Carter was not merely an outsider; he was an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor, and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today’s public reckoning with the vast gulf between America’s ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be losing his re-election bid—and witnessing the ascendance of Reagan. In these remarkable pages, Bird traces the arc of Carter’s administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter’s battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today—from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—burned at the heart of Carter’s America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them. Drawing on interviews with Carter and members of his administration and recently declassified documents, Bird delivers a profound, clear-eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. The Outlier is the definitive account of an enigmatic presidency—both as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.

"A collection of reminiscences on life in the White House by Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Regan. Introduced and compiled by White House correspondent Hugh Sidey"--Provided by publisher.