Humanity: How Jimmy Carter Lost an Election and Transformed the Post-Presidency

by Jordan Michael Smith

After living in the White House for four years, in November 1980, Jimmy Carter lost the presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide. Carter's unpopularity helped Republicans win seats in the House and gain control over the Senate for the first time in over 20 years. The Reagan Era had begun, ushering in a generation of conservative power. Democrats blamed Carter for this catastrophe and spent the next decade pretending he had never existed. Republicans cheered his demise and trotted out his name to scare voters for years to come. Carter and his wife Rosalynn returned to their farm in the small town of Plains, Georgia. They were humiliated, widely unpopular, and even in financial debt. 35 years later, Carter has become the most celebrated post-president in American history. He has won the Nobel Peace Prize, written bestselling books, and become lauded across the world for his efforts on behalf of peace and social justice. Ex-presidents now adopt the Carter model of leveraging their eminent status to benefit humanity. By pursuing diplomatic missions, leading missions to end poverty and working to eradicate disease around the world, Carter has transformed the idea of what a president can accomplish after leaving the White House.This is the story of how Jimmy Carter lost the biggest political prize on earth--but managed to win back something much greater. Jordan Michael Smith is a contributing writer at Salon and the Christian Science Monitor. His writing has appeared in print or online for the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, BBC, and many other publications. Born in Toronto, he holds a Master's of Arts in Political Science from Carleton University. He lives in New York City. www.jordanmichaelsmith.typepad.com.Cover design by Adil Dara.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Politics

49 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 9, 2016

About the author

Jordan Michael Smith is the author of the bestselling Kindle Single, Humanity: How Jimmy Carter Lost an Election and Transformed the the Post-Presidency, and a former consultant at BerlinRosen, a political communications firm. Formerly a Contributing Writer for Salon and the Christian Science Monitor, his writing has appeared in print and online for many national publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, BBC.com andMSNBC.com.

Born in Toronto, he holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario and a Master's degree from Carleton University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humanity
How Jimmy Carter Lost an Election and Transformed the Post-Presidency
By: Jordan Michael Smith
Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

This is a short book but very big in information! It told how Carter was the black sheep and outcast when he lost to Reagan. Then how, through his honest and humble acts, have shown that what Carter said he backed up with actions. The Republicans have shown their lack of support of the poor.
The books he has written show he is very far ahead of others. His thoughts on Palestinian is one example when this was not popular.
He was broke when left the White House. His plantation went broke while he was President. He, unlike other Presidents, did not meddle in his company while President.
He is still an example of a great person! A true humanitarian! A person that cares for people of all races, ages, religion, sexes, and does it with his whole heart! He has done this his whole life! He is truly a wonderful man!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I should have read the book’s byline more carefully. This book does not focus on Carter’s presidency. The book opens in the last days and months of Carter’s presidency. The author implied that Carter’s unique mix of over confidence and naivety led him to be blindsided in the 1980 election.

Carter’s reign of presidency was before my time but This book was on my to-read list for more than a year because of all of the positive contributions to society that Carter made post-presidency.

I discovered that Carter’s name was basically dirt in D.C. after (and probably before) his election defeat. There were so many instances in which my admiration of Carter grew, not only because of his affect on Habitat for Humanity and it’s coffers but also for his contributions to peace in the Middle East, clean water in Africa and the spread of knowledge about parasites in dirty water, and various supports in developing countries.

Carter managed to irk American leaders who requested his assistance with foreign countries but didn’t appreciate his methods. The thing I appreciated most about him was his steadfastness in the face of resistance and even unpopularity. Sometimes he strong armed foreign leaders who declared themselves to be the winner of a rigged election.

This book made me want to learn even more about Carter’s history. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in American presidents and history.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short but emotionally powerful look at how the traits (particularly selflessness, refusal to compromise, and inflexible moral clarity) that made Carter a bad politician made him a great post-President. Makes me want to learn more about Carter and his entire life.

[Cora · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright. The author begins to repeat himself around 65% into the book. Not a lot of new information here hence the "meh" rating.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little book about Jimmy Carter's post-Presidency. Carter was one of the least favorite President's in our nation and yet during his post-Presidency he is much beloved. This book covers Carter's time from his landslide loss for a second-term through 2015. Carter certainly had issues as President. He left office basically destitute financially. While other past-Presidents of his era concentrated on making money by writing books and speaking across the nation, Carter concentrated on human rights, Habitat for Humanity, and working internationally toward peace. Smith does a very good job showing how the man went from being almost hated to being a Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian and beloved by Americans.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly fine attempt at trying to humanize Jimmy Carter's post-presidency. Carter's failure as an executive is put in contrast to his humanitarian efforts as he returned to private life, and it's a solid, unexceptional look at that aspect of his story while largely diminishing some of his less favorable aspects (like his statements on Israel and Palestine) as well as ignoring some of the parts that don't fit the liberal narrative held by the author (such as the Carter-Baker Commission). A nice quick Kindle Single, but not great unless you're seeking out more hagiographic reads.

Closer to a 3.5.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Kindle Single describes the downfall and public disgrace of President Jimmy Carter, after his resounding defeat to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election, and his resurrection and reinvention after he left the White House, which transformed and transcended the role of former US presidents, earned him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, and assured that he would be remembered as a humanitarian, a compassionate Christian, and an influential world leader, rather than the bumbling, ineffectual and inflexible president that he was widely perceived as being.

In the aftermath of the devastating presidential defeat, in which he lost 44 of 50 states to Reagan, Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn returned to their home in Plains, Georgia both humiliated and impoverished, due to the failure of the family business. His sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, encouraged him to embrace Christ in the 1960s, when he became a born again Christian, which was influential in his moral beliefs as a politician, but also a hindrance as it led to his inability to achieve compromises and build coalitions with opponents during his presidential years. These strongly held beliefs did serve him well as a private citizen, as he decided to use his former position to accomplish good deeds and influence others. First, he dedicated the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center, located in the heart of Atlanta, to the goals of world peace, eradication of communicable illnesses in developing countries such as Guinea worm disease and river blindness, and the oversight of important elections throughout the world. He and Rosalynn were also influential in transforming Habitat for Humanity from a small organization dedicated to building homes for the poor into a multimillion dollar organization operating throughout the country.

Jordan Michael Smith does a fine job in chronicling Jimmy Carter's post-presidential activities, and his influence on the presidents who have succeeded him into using their position as former world leaders to benefit humanity, instead of enriching their own coffers, as Carter's predecessors were best known for. "Humanity" is a readable and informative introduction to this fine man, who has inspired untold public officials and private citizens to follow in his footsteps.

[Peter McGinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who voted for Jimmy Carter twice, this made for an interesting and illuminating read. I was aware at the time that his presidency had ended in failure, but it seemed to me to be merely due to a combination of bad luck (Iranian hostage crisis) and his tendency to telling spoiled Americans blunt truths we didn't want to hear, such as lecturing about our need to conserve fossil fuels during the energy crisis.

But this article describes how Carter's failure ran deeper than that. More than just events or hard truths worked against him. His leadership style and indeed the outsider status that helped elect him in the first place made him an awkward presence in the White House. This article describes the politician's flaws and how he used those flaws to succeed on the world stage after his presidency like he never succeeded while in office.

In a way this article was a sad reminder of how low the American political discourse has fallen, for I recall how - when Carter announced his cancer - a Fox entertainment hostess said something to the effect that the disease would remove a cancer from the landscape. Who knew that such talk would soon become the norm!

[Jennie Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew very little about Jimmy Carter before reading HUMANITY, and now that I've finished, the title makes sense. This was a well-written and accessible summation of Carter's post-presidency work. I particularly enjoyed reading about Carter's work with Habitat for Humanity.

[Paul Hickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Worthy Man

This is a short book that tells about President Carter's post-Presidential achievements. It is the blueprint for what a politician can achieve without being political. Jimmy Carter may go down as the most admired ex-President ever.

[Suzann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expertly edited overview of Carter's post- presidency; doling out both the criticism and kudos he deserves.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Particularly for readers who are too young to have remembered or experienced Carter's presidency, his simultaneous vilification and lionization can be puzzling, particularly when those speaking, whether in favor or against him, tend to generalize about his deeds. But this Kindle Single, without forcing a curious audience into reading an entire biography about a past President, answers their questions: the qualities that made Carter a not-so-great politician made him a great philanthropist.

Carter, it seems--at least according to this work--was never interested in playing the political game in order to do what he felt was morally right. Instead, he wanted to cut to the chase, even though that might cause political losses. But this desire to get to the heart of the matter enabled him to do more for humanity as a former President than he even might have been able to do had he been re-elected, from making charitable organizations like Habitat for Humanity household names, to fighting for fair elections in other countries, to all but eradicating diseases. While his main goal was not to rehabilitate his reputation, he in fact did so, using his contacts and influence for a higher purpose than lining his own wallet.

This treatment of Carter is perhaps relevant prior to the 2016 Presidential election in a variety of ways: the parties are deeply divided, foreign governments may be trying to influence the campaigns, and the world is waiting to see what use Obama will make of his status as former President. Meanwhile, Carter, past 90 and having gotten through one cancer scare, is continuing to build his legacy. Readers may sense an unspoken question at the end of the book: who, if anyone, will continue in Carter's spirit after he is gone?

[Sara Avrams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

I have always liked President Carter. Now I know more about the man, I admire him even more. What a wonderful human being!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting trip from laughed out of office to respected statesman

Jimmy Carter has always fascinated me. I grew up in a very Republican household, so I never heard anything good about him growing up. It left me wondering how someone so thoroughly awful became president. Then as I got older, I heard about his work as a former president and it's all glowing, so if he's so great, why only one term and then he's a punchline?

I enjoyed this as a look into both sides. Yes, it's more focused on the positive, but it doesn't let you forget his flaws either. There's also a lot of talk about what made him different than the former presidents before him, which was honestly something I'd never considered.

[Kristen Updike · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible man

I had no idea of all the accomplishments Jimmy Carter has done. The book is well written and seemingly unbiased