This is surely the definitive biography of Jimmy Carter for our time.
Jimmy Carter is a complicated man. He was trained as a engineer and has the mindset of the problems-solving engineer. He is a very serious man in his beliefs but has a sense of humor which he sometimes holds back. He is an honest man, incorruptible.
His presidency is a stunning mixture of success and failure. Most of his successes, which this book brings back to mind, have unfortunately been forgotten. He always spoke the truth and unlike Reagan, never tried to snowball the American people. He was seemingly not able to often inspire the American people and suffered from outrageously bad luck, but he stood tall and his presidential legacy will only grow as time goes on.
JC was the first president to promote renewable energy with solar panels. P. 1
Everyone finds him hard to read, a weakness as he tried to lead the country. P. 4
He was disciplined and incorruptible as President. P. 4
His accomplishments were more than only LBJ. This is the most amazing thing I discovered reading this book. P.5
Accomplished many things commonly attributed to Reagan like increasing the defense budget. P. 5-6
The Camp David Accords---the most successful peace treaty since the end of WW II. P. 6
Always deemed an outsider which is one reason I like JC. P. 7
A man of the soil and the way it caressed his feet. P. 13
How Plains was named. P. 14
His Daddy's nickname for him was "Hotshot" or "Hot." P. 15
JC found immersion in the natural world. P. 16
His Daddy was hard on Hot. P. 17
Hot learned how to butcher a hog at a young age. P. 19
Carters are detailed oriented. P. 25
Miss Lillian---what a character! P. 25
Miss Lillian was a bookworm. She always had to have something to read. P. 26
JC was the first American president to be born in a hospital. P. 28
All about Rachel Clark. P. 32
Miss Lillian was mildly liberal. P. 34
The Carters except Earl were readers. P. 35
Jimmy and AD. P. 39
He was teased for sounding black in elementary school. P. 40
Baptized at 11. P. 40
Early skepticism. P. 40
The early influence of Julia Coleman. P. 41
Early reader of War and Peace. P. 43
Stubborn righteousness. P. 48
Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Tech before the Naval Academy. P. 50-51
Strong and tough-minded but his demeanor makes him look weak. P. 54
Carter marched with his icy blue eyes fixed straight ahead. P. 55
Carter was a loner, self-contained, and unneedey P. 60
Eleanor Roslyn Smith Planes neighbor. P. 62
Rosalyn always wanted to get out of Plains which is why she was so dismayed when Jimmy left the Navy to return home. P. 67
They married 7-7-46. P. 67
Carter was rejected for a Rhodes. P. 70
Hyman Rickover had the most influence on him other that his parents. P. 78
The notorious Rickover/passing the interview. P. 80-81
Since he was 6 he felt like an outsider. P. 89
Returning home---time to be a man. P. 90
Returning to Plains. . . Highway 280 friendly but desolate. P. 95
Miss Lillian spent 6 yrs. at Auburn P. 99
The family would read silently at the dinner table. Fascinating. Jimmy likes Dylan Thomas, Faulkner, and yes, Bob Dylan. P. 100
A Dylan Thomas collector. P. 100
The Billy Story, the only sane one in the family. P. 101
Late in joining the civil rights struggle. P. 106
All about race after the Brown decision and Carter was on the wrong side. P. 109
Koinonia became Habitat for Humanity. P. 112
He did at least try to be decent. P. 114
How he met Charles Kirbo. P. 119
Private liberal conscience; public conservative persona. P. 122
A loner and a straight-arrow man. P. 123
Lillian joins the Peace Corps. P. 134
Devastated over losing to Lester Maddox in 1966. P. 137
Born again. P. 138
A good one-on-one campaigner. P. 145
Carter ran coded-racist campaign for governor in 1970. P. 147
His kids have had issues. P. 153
Dixie was played at his inaugural in 1971. P. 167
He was a great environmental President. A real outdoorsman. P. 183
Enlightened New South governor but still in tune with Southern heritage. P. 190
Referencing Dylan and Maggie's farm. P. 206
Billy joked that he was the only same one in the family. P. 217
Voters might have been dispirited but much less partisan than today. P. 220
Gregg Allmän fueled his early races. P. 227
Biden was the first senator to endorse Carter. P. 233
Gonzo like Carter. P. 238
A logical mix of conservative and liberal. P. 239
Limped to the nomination in 1976 without a solid base. P. 244
Quoting Dylan. P. 258
Velcro quality: everything stuck to him. P. 267
Billy helped bring in Texas. P. 273
Ford was gaining in the polls as the election. A few more days and Ford might have won. P. 276
On election night Mississippi put Carter over the top. P. 278
Restoring faith in government. P. 292
Great energy and environmental record. P. 308
Rosalyn was the Steel Magnolia. P. 309
Appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench. P. 314
Three of his four children got divorced. P. 316
When Amy misbehaved her parents assigned her a book to report and report back on its contents. P. 317
First class intellect. Second class temperament. The opposite of FDR. P. 319
His charm as a candidate seemed to fade in the White House. He did not seem to be having a good time. P. 320
Books always had a place of pride in the Carter household. Herzog and Things Fall Apart. P. 322
Press assumption was that the Georgia interlopers were country hicks. The70's were a time of a peaceful before things got out of hand later. P.323
Carter and Biden got crossfired over busing.P 328
Carter smart but no political skills. P. 329
The Bert Lance saga. P. 335
Carter was less a FDR New Dealer than a TeddyRoosevelt social reformer. P. 348
The Panama Canal Treaty was a real squeaker but he got it done. P. 372
He never used the word malaise in his malaise speech. P. 456
Carter's "malaise" speech on July 15, 1979, was at first a success, but then he wrecked it by the worst decision of his presidency. P. 472
After the success of his speech JC promptly ineptly purged his cabinet which did not go over well. His ratings plummeted. P. 474
His biggest domestic failure was his inability to tame inflation which was 13% in 1972. The word stagflation entered the country's vocabulary with high inflation plus high unemployment. P. 476
The ominous events that led to taking of hostages at the American embassy in Tehran began with the exile of the Shah and the radical takeover of the the country and the question of whether the Shah should be welcomed into the US. JC was opposed to taking the Shah in.
Carter never surprised the Iranians. But what could he have done differently without endangering the American hostages. Somehow it seems he needed a stronger response but it never happened until the ill-fated rescue attempt that did endanger their lives. P. 520
After treatment for cancer in New York the Shah was flown to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio before being dispatched to Panama. The drama of the Shah's wanderings after he left Iran with the regime change makes for compelling reading in this book. P. 523
Instead of coming together for their August, 1980, convention, the Democrats split apart. P. 577
After dropping out of the race Ted Kennedy gave the greatest speech of his life at the convention. P. 581
JC's acceptance at the convention was boring and not celebrated. On top of it all, the balloon drop didn't work. P. 582
On stage after his acceptance speech, JC thought Kennedy might have been drunk. P. 583
Jimmy's excessive punctuality led to marital stress. P. 620
As president, Carter was often respected without being liked: afterward, he was admired without being loved. P. 662
"By the time he was in his midnineties, the shortcomings and contradictions of Jimmy Carter's long life seemed even to his critics to have given way to an appreciation of his core decency. Beyond his heavenly reward lay his earthly example: a life of ceaseless effort, not just for himself but for the world which he helped shape." P. 670
Jimmy Carter is the ultimate Southern Renaissance Man.
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