"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.
