The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter

by Kai Bird

An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter's presidential legacy--from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus

Ever since Ronald Reagan's landslide win in November 1980, pundits have labeled Jimmy Carter's single term in the White House a failed presidency. But Carter's time as president is a compelling and underexplored story, marked by accomplishment and adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, the first full presidential biography of Jimmy Carter, Kai Bird approaches Carter's presidency with an expert hand, unfolding the story of Carter's four years with few allies inside Washington and a great many critics in the media.

As president, Carter was not merely an outsider, but indeed an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the old confederacy, and though he held strongly to the separation of church and state, his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. As Bird shows, this background manifested itself in an unusual complex of arrogance, humility, and candor that neither Washington nor America was prepared to embrace. Forty years before today's broad public reckoning with the vast gulf between America's creed and its actions, Carter looked out over a nation torn by race, crippled by stagflation, and demoralized by both Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters ultimately recoiled. The cost of Carter's unshakeable belief in doing the right thing would be a second term--and the ascendance of Reagan.

The issues that Carter contended with in the late 1970s are still hotly debated today: national health care, growing inequality, energy independence, racism, immigration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forty years after voters turned him out of the White House, Carter appears remarkably prescient on the major issues facing the country in the twenty-first century, even if in his own time he was a prophet scorned.

Drawing on interviews with members of Carter's administration as well as recently unclassified documents from his presidential library, Bird delivers a profoundly thorough, clear-eyed evaluation of a president whose legacy has been debated, dismissed, and misunderstood The Outlier is this generation's definitive account of an enigmatic presidency--as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Presidents, Us Presidents, American History

772 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2021

About the author

Kai Bird is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, best known for his biographies of political figures. He has also won the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, the Duff Cooper Prize, a Woodrow Wilson Center Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is a Contributing Editor of The Nation magazine.

Bird was born in 1951. His father was a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and he spent his childhood in Jerusalem, Beirut, Dhahran, Cairo and Bombay. He finished high school in 1969 at Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu, South India. He received his BA from Carleton College in 1973 and a M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in 1975. Bird now lives in Miami Beach, Florida with his wife, Susan Goldmark, and their son, Joshua.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this comprehensive biography of a much maligned President. I rate it 4.5 stars rounded up. The author goes beyond the Reagan electoral landslide to point out that the popular vote was fairly close if you add Anderson and Carter together--47,6% to Reagan's 50.7%. In addition, nearly 50% of eligible voters did not vote.
The author lists some of Carter's major accomplishments:
Domestic:
Deregulation of energy, trucking and airline sectors. Energy set the US on the road to energy independence of today. Airlines opened up to middle class Americans.
Foreign:
Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel
Panama Canal Treaty
Alaska National Parks/wilderness/Wildlife refuges expansion--the largest of any US President
Succeeded in getting all US hostages released from Iran without a single person getting killed. Contrast that with 284 US Marines killed by Hezbollah in Lebanon under Reagan a few years later.
This is a door stopper of a book--628 pages of text with another 150 pages of bibliography, footnotes and index. It took me 11 days to read it.
The author did extensive research, interviewing about a hundred people, reading Carter Presidential papers and many other sources.
One quote: Then Georgia governor giving his inaugural speech: "This is a time for truth and frankness...I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over."
Lieutenant Governor Maddox, sitting on the platform, was stunned, and soon denounced him as a liar. Jody Powell retorted. "Being called a liar by Lester Maddox is like being called ugly by a frog."
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Thanks to Kai Bird and Random House for sending me this book.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter was a well-researched biography of probably one of the most underestimated and misunderstood presidencies of our time. And I include myself in those in that quandry about President Carter's time in the White House and the valuable contributions that were made. One of my favorite southern writers is William Faulkner and he was also one of Carter's favorite novelists. Kai Bird alludes to the significance of this as follows:

"William Faulkner, later one of Carter's favorite novelists, described his homeland as a 'deep South dead since 1865 and peopled with garrulous outraged baffled ghosts.' Carter later read all of Faulkner's novels, and he said that 'on many occasions I've read them aloud to my children.' He thought Faulkner had captured the struggle between 'good and evil. . . perhaps better than any other Southern writer.' This Southern novelist, he said, understood the 'self-condemnation resulting from slavery, the humiliation following the War Between the States.' More than most white southerners, the rural folk of South Georgia had defied assimilation and loyally clung to their native culture as a matter of principle. They had their own vernacular and distinctive accent. And they had their own religion, an unvarnished evangelical southern Protestantism that affirmed the supremacy of the white race in society and patriarchy at home."

Jimmy Carter from the very beginning of his candidacy was an outsider and also an outlier in that he had no ties with the political elite in Washington, nor did he care. He came to power from the heart of the Deep South in 1976 on the heels of the scandalous Nixon presidency and the Watergate debacle as well as the gaping wounds in the nation from the disastrous Vietnam war. Jimmy Carter was not only a former Naval officer but a Calvanist at heart and determined to do what was right for the country with little consideration to the potential political consequences. But in that vein, he accomplished far more than most people give him credit.

"Taken together, Carter's early record on all these foreign policy issues--human rights, SALT II treaty, the Panama Canal treaties, and his decision to cancel an expensive weapons program like the B-1 bomber--suggested a president who was unafraid to take on major foreign policy issues, even as these achievements came with considerable political costs."

There are parts of this book that are heartbreaking as we see how hard his administration pushed for national health care insurance, a program ironically modeled closely after the Carter bill by Barack Obama three decades later with the introduction of his universal health care plan, as we know as 'Obamacare.' And for me the kicker was that Senator Edward Kennedy's refusal to support Carter's incremental, catastrophic national health insurance bill in 1978-1979 condemned the country to wait three decades for meaningful healthcare reform. And then of course there were the American hostages in Iran taken captive for 144 days as the Carter administration continued to work for their release, ironically achieved minutes after the inaugaration of Ronald Reagan as president.

Probably one of the single most far-reaching highlights of his presidency was the Camp David Accords where he brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together for twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David resulting in political agreements signed on September 17, 1978. This resulted in a sea change in Middle Eastern politics prompting the disintegration of a united Arab front in opposition to Israel.

But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the dedicated ragtag Georgia boys that had been with Jimmy Carter during his governorship and now were in the White House in their blue jeans with very different and shocking ways to the Washington D. C. establishment, namely Hamilton Jordan and Jody Powell. I think the author says it best:

". . . the Secret Service watched silently as a disheveled Jody Powell pushed his aging blue Volkswagon off the White House grounds and into the street. The fifteen year-old engine refused to start. It was a metaphor. The Georgia boys were done. But contrary to conventional wisdom offered by the Washington punditocracy, they left behind a consequential presidential legacy. Jimmy Carter changed the country."

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Outlier
The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter
by Kai Bird
Crown Publishing
I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this terrific book!

Jimmy Carter has to be my favorite President. Obama was good but even he had flaws he just hid them. With Carter, he was open and honest and according to polls, people would rather have someone that breaks the rules a few times if it means getting things done. Not me, I want someone with integrity and honestly! But Carter did get things done. I think Carter's time in office was often bad timing on the world stage and other staged plots by Roy Cohn as described in the book.

This follows Carter from his humble beginning on a farm with no running water or electricity to after his Presidency. From boy, man, husband and soldier, to Senator, Governor, then to President and beyond. It deals with family, friends, co-workers, his ideals, his accomplishments, and his failures. It told how he was conservative on some things and liberal on others.

As Governor, and this really wasn't too different than when he was President, he worked for prison reform, education, climate and preserving land, childcare, hunger, and more. But he also was ok with the death penalty for some cases.

As President, he was before his time in climate change. He put solar panels on the White House. (Of course ignorant Reagan took them down!) The only big problem he had was one of his main advisors was accused of cooking the books and the rest of his staff made the guy resign. After the trial, he was proven innocent. Roy Cohn later was the one that started it all to bring shame on Carter's legacy. Carter's popularity went down due to that.

He was working on the high inflation, about had it going in the right direction but not in time to save his election bid, and he should've cut defense spending and focused more on internal development. But the was no wars but a hostage situation at the end of his term, again due to interference.

Overall, Carter manage to get the Panama deal, and several more international issues started or completed. Social security running well. Other major accomplishments we take for granted today. He tried to get a universal healthcare but couldn't get it through. Obama's healthcare piggybacked off of Carter's.

Carter, in his later 90's, is still helping humanity. Still the honest, sweet man that did what he felt was right and didn't care what side of the political stick you were on.

This is a very informative and interesting look into a great man. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, this is a story of a solid citizen, too honest for politics, but he accomplished things anyway! Highly recommend!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jimmy Carter is enjoying a real renaissance lately, as the subject of several new biographies and documentaries. It could be because enough time has passed that his presidency can now be analyzed as history, it could be because of his sheer longevity and status as the eldest of our elder statesman, or it could be because even a conventional “failed presidency” looks pretty good now compared to what we just lived through.

At any rate, it’s difficult not to compare Kai Bird’s biography with Jonathan Alter’s His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, the last major Carter biography that came out last year, and even Bird gives a hat tip to Alter’s work in his acknowledgments. I like reading multiple biographies of the same person to get different perspectives (says the guy who just read seven books in a row about Martin Van Buren), so I was interested to get Bird’s take on Carter. But I have to say, beat-by-beat, Bird’s and Alter’s works are substantially the same book, with many of the same emphases, the same anecdotes and the same structure - both offer dialogue-heavy, fly-on-the-wall, chronological, sympathetic portrayals of Carter's public life. There are, however, a few key differences, the main one being that Bird’s book is very good - but Alter’s is much better.

The main, obvious difference is that Bird chose to focus mostly on Carter’s presidency while Alter devotes more time to his full life story. To his credit, Bird doesn’t race through Carter’s upbringing and pre-presidency in a brief prologue - he devotes a good 100+ pages to it. While it’s not as satisfying as Alter’s longer treatment of this part of Carter’s life, it does help lay the foundation for the story of Carter’s presidency. That said, Bird looks at Carter’s upbringing mostly through the lens of race relations, which is an important part of his life story and political development, but equally important are his education and experience as an engineer and businessman, which aren’t explored as thoroughly.

Bird devotes the bulk of his book to Carter’s presidency, though I find it difficult to pinpoint exactly what he did with all this extra space that Alter didn’t also thoroughly cover in 1/3rd fewer pages. Bird does sketch out fuller portraits of many of Carter’s staffers and Cabinet members, and provides more background leading up to major events like the Camp David summit and the Iran hostage crisis. And his telling of those events is excellent, particularly the dramatic, day-by-day tick-tock of the Camp David talks. Carter’s domestic struggles with the economy, the energy crisis and his tense relations with more liberal members of his party and the Democratic Congress are also well-covered (though curiously, Joe Biden only gets a couple of cursory mentions in the book, even though he was the first Senator to endorse Carter in 1976 - even slightly more space devoted to their relationship would have made the book just a little more timely).

Two drawbacks about Bird’s book really stood out to me, though. One, he never seems to question or fact-check some of the more colorful anecdotes he uses. Alter takes with a grain of salt some of the stories Carter relates in the many autobiographical books he's written. A story Carter tells in which, as a young businessman, he threatened to flush a $5 bill down the toilet instead of paying it as dues to a local white-supremacist business organization is described as “suspiciously colorful” in Alter’s book, as he notes that Carter included the story in only one of the three books in which he described the incident. But Bird relates the story as fact, with no attribution in the text and no skepticism.

Bird also relates without question Carter’s anecdote about his mother being surrounded by reporters and asked after his inauguration if she’s proud of her son, to which she cheekily responds, “Which one?” This question-and-retort has been attributed to many others prior to Miss Lillian, including Dwight Eisenhower’s mother, and I can find no reporting at the time that this exchange really happened on Inauguration Day, or any other time. A 1985 Helen Thomas column claims it happened during the campaign - it’s possible she created this legend and Carter ran with it and elided some of the details (he even tells the same story in slightly different ways in two of his books), but I question whether it happened at all. Bird doesn’t. And Alter, tellingly, doesn’t mention it.

Bird also tells the story of Carter getting on stage with Dizzy Gillespie to sing “Salt Peanuts” - but he tells it twice in the book, describing it as happening at two different events at two different times. It only happened once, but Carter conflated the two events in one of his books - so Bird does, too, even though by doing so, he ends up contradicting himself in his own book.

And in one of the most memorable parts of Carter's "malaise speech" in which he quoted "a southern governor" as telling him, “Mr. President, you are not leading this nation - you’re just managing the government," Bird misattributes that quote to Bill Clinton instead of South Carolina governor Richard Riley. Not only that, but he somehow combines several different comments from several different people into one long quote and attributes all of it to Clinton!

These are all small, relatively unimportant little stories in the grand scheme of things. But they illustrate Bird’s somewhat troubling tendency of taking people’s word for what happened, or picking up some "fact" from somewhere, without considering the source or bothering to double-check whether the accounts are really true. If he didn’t fact-check the small stuff, what are we to make of the more important stuff he writes about?

The second drawback of Bird’s book is laid out right in the prologue. “No modern president worked harder at the job and few achieved more than Carter in his one term in office,” he writes gushingly. Carter’s commitment to human rights “contributed more to the disintegration of the Soviet system than did Ronald Reagan’s reckless spending on Star Wars.” Etc., etc. At least Bird shows his hand and expresses his point of view right up front, but he could have been a little less hyperbolic in his praise. Alter’s portrayal of Carter’s presidency is sympathetic but fair - he credits Carter for his tangible achievements, and points out where he deserves credit for initiating programs or reforms that didn’t fully come to fruition until after he left the White House. But he also doesn’t hesitate to point out Carter’s missteps and shortcomings.

In Bird’s telling, Carter’s efforts are always underappreciated, his critics are always wrong, the press is always unfair, and everyone who judged his presidency to be a disappointment is simply mistaken. Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski is portrayed as a Svengali who was responsible for many of Carter’s biggest missteps, and the irresponsible press was solely to blame for “the public perception of the Carter administration as weak and ineffectual.”

But perception is no small thing. Carter’s presidency cannot be dismissed as a complete failure, and both Alter and Bird rightly try to correct that. But his presidency also cannot be whitewashed as a great, unheralded success that America just didn’t appreciate at the time. It's true, after all, that Carter could be a micromanaging technocrat whose actions and words were often not persuasive or inspirational. The best leaders inspire you to do better, they don’t lecture you about what you’ve done wrong. They are strong in their convictions and don’t vacillate in their responses. And no one can be an effective leader if they can't persuade anyone to follow.

Alter acknowledges all of these faults. Bird excuses them. Alter’s book is a balanced biography that celebrates Carter’s successes but also helps you understand why his is not a celebrated presidency. Bird’s book is thorough, well-meaning and well-written but veers too close to hagiography in its conclusions, and he doesn’t really make a case in support of his subtitle describing Carter’s presidency as “unfinished”. Together with his troubling tendency to get simple facts wrong - even little things that an amateur like me was able to spot - these drawbacks keep his book from being excellent. It’s a very good read. But in the final analysis, Alter’s is simply better.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2021...

Kai Bird’s “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” is the most recent full-length review of the life and legacy of the 39th president. Bird is a journalist and author who has written biographies of McGeorge and William Bundy, CIA operative Robert Ames and presidential adviser John McCloy. His co-written “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Although this book is the direct result of six years of research and writing, Bird has been intrigued with Jimmy Carter for nearly four decades. Drawing from the unpublished diaries of members of Carter’s presidential staff and his lawyer/adviser Charlie Kirbo, Bird is able to provide behind-the-scenes color unavailable in previous Carter biographies. But his thesis – that Carter was a more successful and decisive president than is generally recognized – is by now a fairly conventional perspective.

Bird’s writing style is straightforward and rarely flashy; he relies on well-articulated facts and embedded dialogue rather than descriptive scene-setting and literary flourishes to guide the reader. And although Bird’s emphasis is clearly on Carter’s presidency (consuming more than three-fourths of the 628-page narrative) he does devote meaningful attention to Carter’s upbringing and post-presidency.

Most readers will quickly notice Bird’s fondness for his subject. But if the author’s affinity for Carter is undeniable (and his praise consistently effusive) he is almost as quick to point out Carter’s peculiarities, flaws and shortcomings. On balance, however, Bird is notably forgiving of Carter’s faults and believes his presidential legacy has more room to rise.

One of this book’s greatest strengths is its consistently-thorough introductions to important supporting characters. Nearly everyone who plays an important role in Carter’s political life receives a robust, context-rich portrait. These are not quite as colorful as the “mini-biographies” featured in Robert Caro’s series on LBJ or in Adam Cohen’s review of FDR’s first 100 days, but they are invaluable in educating and engaging the reader.

Additionally, Bird provides an interesting chapter on Carter’s selection process for cabinet members and senior advisers, a fascinating review of Carter’s life in the White House and a colorful chapter on Carter’s relationship with his first speechwriter. Bird also provides a notably memorable chapter on the Camp David Accords and countless entertaining “fly on the wall” moments during Carter’s presidency. Finally, Bird’s observations in the book’s final pages regarding Carter’s legacy prove thoughtful.

But while this biography of Carter is quite good, it falls short of the standard set by Jonathan Alter’s “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life.” Bird’s biography is only slightly shorter, but devotes less than half the pages to Carter’s childhood, naval career and early political life that Alter provides. All the essential elements of Carter’s extraordinary climb are present in Bird’s narrative but his biography fails to include certain observations, anecdotes, context and nuances vital to fully capturing Carter’s persona.

And while Bird’s coverage of the Carter presidency is 150 pages longer than Alter’s, I cannot think of an important presidential moment missing in Alter’s treatment. But where both authors feel Carter’s presidential service is under-appreciated, Alter’s biography explores Carter’s strengths and weaknesses with equal fervor while Bird more frequently seems to excuse Carter’s most politically-problematic flaws.

Overall, Kai Bird’s “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” is unquestionably good…but not quite great. Readers relying on this biography of Carter as a sole source of insight into his life will walk away with a solid understanding of his life and times. But in my view, Jonathan Alter’s book (published last fall) remains the undisputed “go to” biography of Jimmy Carter.

Overall Rating: 4 stars

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Kai Bird is most famous for his book on Oppenheimer called American Prometheus which won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2006. The stakes are not quite as high in this recent biography about Jimmy Carter's life but this was a well researched book nonetheless and a good read.

It is interesting that many people who worked with Carter called him a Calvinist. I think that was an apt moniker. What was also true about Carter is that he was quite apolitical and of course this got him into a lot of trouble with the politicians in Washington. Many people misinterpreted his Southern pragmatism as a political tactic which it was not.

There is heavy focus in the book on the Iran hostage crisis with good reason as it took up nearly half his presidency and was the major reason he lost his reelection bid. But Carter is best known for his forty years of humanitarian work post-presidency and the Nobel Prize he received for this work. He bristled when people said his presidency was a failure because he felt he had always been the same hardworking honest person.

I wanted to end this brief review with a statement written by Carter's friend Anwar Sadat shortly before Sadat was assassinated. It is the most apropos anecdote about Carter in the book.

“Jimmy Carter is my very best friend on earth. He is the most honorable man I know. Brilliant and deeply religious, he has all the marvelous attributes that made him inept in dealing with the scoundrels who run the world.” - Anwar Sadat

[Larry (LPosse1) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kai Bird is an outstanding writer and this biography is an exemplary work. I was 11 when Carter was in office. It was interesting to fill in my limited knowledge of his presidency by reading this excellent book.
I’ve always had the upmost respect for his post presidency “career “. He was a prolific writer and activist. I do believe he gets a bad wrap for his presidency and reading this text reenforces my opinion. This is a big one but worth the time

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject matter breakdown was not what I expected so I think it's important to share that information right off the bat:

19% is upbringing through governorship of GA (pages 1 - 120)
76% is JC's term as the 39th president (pages 121 - 598)
4% covers the post-presidency (pages 599 - 620)
1% is the epilogue (pages 621 - 627)

Bird's a very good biographer and no chapter was less than very good. I might have rated the book higher if there had been more about Carter's post-presidency. I'm a little oversaturated with stories of modern politics so I was a little less receptive to the political events of the era than I might normally be. But that doesn't mean they aren't important or interesting. The book details the bigger and lesser known events form 1977 - 1981. Note that fans of Henry Kissinger or Ronald Reagan or Ted Kennedy might want to skip this book.

I was in middle school when he took the oath of office so my sense of the man had mostly been shaped by his humanitarian acts beginning in the early 1980s and continuing for decades. Bird effectively portrays a complex man who accomplished far more in his one term than he's credited for. As honorable a man as Carter appears to be this is no hagiography. He still comes across as a very good man but maybe not as gentle or kindly as you might expect.

[Kifflie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this book started out strong, got a little bogged down in the middle, and recovered well at the end.

Those of us of a certain age remember the Carter Administration as well-meaning, but out of its depth, with the President's stubbornness and micro-managing style contributing to many of its failures. But Bird tries to show, with some success, that there were accomplishments as well -- on human rights, environmentalism, getting inflation under control, and securing peace between Israel and Egypt.

It's a good effort, even though I found the writing style a bit clunky, and some of the events hard to follow.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book by shopping for "Jimmy Carter biographies," and here I found this.
After trying to read a different Carter biography off and on for over a year (!), I thought the 39th president to still be interesting but was no fan of that book.
Went shopping for Carter biographies, and I found this gem by Kai Bird; Bird won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for his "American Prometheus" book nearly two decades ago.
I did not know how much I was in for a treat by stepping out of the box with this "Outlier."

Well-researched with strong use of citations and occasional use of footnotes, I possibly found some further reading material to supplement my interest not only of the Presidency but also more largely of US politics of the late 1970s.

"Outlier" avoids some pitfalls of some biographies -- obsessing over parts of someone's life excessively for dozens and dozens of pages. Bird mostly gets right to the point. He goes into just enough detail for my liking, with hardly inserting his thoughts or opinions of the matter at all.
It covers all of the bases as necessary - his time in the US Navy working on subs, his working relationship with Admiral Rickover, his run for Georgia state senate, both of his runs for Governor of Georgia, his 1976 campaign for the Presidency (and that year's campaign overall), his time in office including plenty of the 444-day Iranian hostage affair (I personally learned a good bit on this one), the differing views and approaches and of course the complete failure of the US intelligence community's assessment of Iran's impending revolution; unprecedented inflation, Ted Kennedy's now-infamous 1980 primary challenge; and of course the Reagan insurgency at the end of the day defeating Carter on that year's Election Day.
Something that Carter is probably more known for than being a former President has been his humanitarian work fighting diseases and building houses. His post-presidency has been nothing short of extraordinary.

It's also really important to understand how some of the work he accomplished in his single term is absolutely felt around the world today. 1993's Oslo accords would not likely have been possible without Carter's 13-day stint with the Camp David Accords. He set huge amounts of land for conservation in the Alaskan wilderness aside for conservation purposes. He was WAY ahead of his time on energy, and for a time tried to focus on his presidency's message on introducing renewable energy policy.

I think I met a former president that I found with a heart as big as mine - even if it cost him his re-election.

Thank you, Mr. Bird, for writing this book.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this biography of Jimmy Carter, AKA "History's greatest monster!"

All kidding aside (and that Simpsons quote aside), Jimmy Carter was one of those presidents that I grew up being told was a bit of a failure. There was his obvious inability to get re-elected in 1980 (a year after I was born), and then the fact that I grew up in the South, which is almost mind-numbingly conservative and backwards when it comes to regarding someone with Carter's decency and integrity as anything other than "a damn dirty liberal" for daring to come into office with any sort of interest in helping those less fortunate or ignored by the white power structure that has long dominated American politics. But Carter's administration was, according to this biography, much more substantial than it might first appear.

"The Outlier" by Kai Bird goes a long way towards rescuing Carter's time in office from its reputation as a time of malaise and heartache, though it doesn't shy from acknowledging the faults that made Carter a one-term president. Almost from the beginning, his time in office was characterized by his reluctance to play the Washington power game, and the sense that he and his cohorts were "Georgia hayseeds" who didn't want to mingle with the Georgetown set. That snobbishness was in a sense justified, as Carter had been elected on a promise of being an outsider and meant to maintain that status in many ways, often to his detriment.

Carter came to office after a run at being the governor of a Deep South state that was mired in the Civil Rights movement as a bastion for white supremacy; his 1970 campaign for Georgia's highest office wasn't exactly a bellweather for racial harmony. But Carter distinguished himself in many ways on the issue of race in Georgia, and emerged as an unlikely harbinger of post-Watergate, post-Vietnam healing of the divides in this country. With his ascent to the White House, he baffled the pre-conceived notions of post-JFK Democrats and liberals, governing in many ways like a more conservative president than they would've liked. Bird lists many of the moments that he says showed Carter to be a more shrewd and adept president than historians or pundits would be likely to admit. I'm admittedly not well-versed in Carter's life and work, but before this book I read Rick Perlstein's "Reaganland" and can tell you that Perlstein's version of Carter's time in office is somewhat less flattering than Bird's. But I think the truth is that Bird, while obviously playing up some of Carter's better moments as president, doesn't shy away from the times when Carter's hubris and belief in his intelligence got him into a situation that a different president might have handled better. From his lack of a chief of staff to his detail-oriented approach to solving problems, Carter could not delegate authority at times when he would've benefited from a less hands-on approach. But in the long term, Bird argues quite convincingly that Carter was a more substantial president than his one term would suggest (and he also argues that the release of the American hostages in Iran was held up due to subterfuge on the part of Reagan's campaign manager, which I don't find hard to believe honestly).

"The Outlier" is a portrait of a man who, though not perfect in his time in office, may deserve more praise for his presidential administration than he has so far. Jimmy Carter is, as of this writing, the longest-lived former president, and he has built a reputation in his post-presidency that few before or since can claim. Kai Bird has written a moving, revealing book about a man whose decency and intelligence may not have made him a successful president in many terms, but whose efforts were usually coming from the right place (and who had to fend off challenges from many in his own ranks, including Ted Kennedy's self-aggrandizing presidential bid in 1980). The time to re-evaluate Jimmy Carter's presidency has come, and this book is a good place to start.

[Brandon Westlake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bird's book sheds light on the life, presidency, and post-presidency of one of our most recent overlooked presidents. The Outlier is detailed in scope; "comprehensive" is a good word to use in describing it. The central chapters of the book are his presidency, which the book views as the central part of his life (the first section is about before, then the third is after). Throughout all of these, we see Bird argue that Carter has always viewed himself and acted as an outlier. Being anti-establishment defines him; it forms his political philosophy and guides his religious beliefs.

Implicit in the book, is a thread that I found about this populist mindset. Recent populist politicians have been popular, but their goals don't align with Carter. These (unnamed, but known) politicians have consistently put themselves first, thinking about gaining or staying in office. Carter, viewed his populist, outlier mindset from a moral standpoint. The best and easiest example to see this is the pardon of Vietnam draft dodgers. Knowing it wasn't popular, he argued "it was the right thing to do." Forgiveness over ambition. Right action over personal attainment.

You don't have to agree with Carter's presidential decisions to appreciate him as a historical figure. Misunderstood at the time, maybe. He can be a guide, though, for us as we try to navigate the dark paths of political division in our country today

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Outlier is book on Jimmy Carter's presidency, but it feels more like a biography than a more traditional history of an administration. Bird presents a very sympathetic view of Carter and his personality, but does not shy away from his flaws and failings. Overall, it is favorable to President Carter, his policies, and achievements. He considers Carter to be an under appreciated, consequential president who was ahead of his time in many policy proposals, especially regarding energy. If there is a villain it is National Security Advisor Zbiginew Brzezinski. It seems his every idea and recommendation to president was the wrong one to follow. Its almost comical. Despite its length, I felt The Outlier omitted some information that I as a reader would have appreciated. For example, there is almost no discussion of votings in the 1976 primaries or either the 1976 or 1980 general elections. Carter's enemies -- be them Democrats or Republicans -- seem to get a very superficial analysis. I felt some legislation/laws were mentioned but their contents went largely unexplained.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is always interesting to read histories of events you lived through. What did you miss? What did you forget? The positive events and accomplishments of the Carter presidency are often lost in the shadow of a few major, negative events. And they are major, no doubt about that. High inflation (a problem that his predecessor, Gerald Ford, also unsuccessfully wrestled with). The Iran embassy hostages.

His efforts for Middle East peace are probably the main positive thing people will remember. But there was much more, both in domestic and foreign policy. The man was not perfect, but it is easy to see that he tried to do what he was certain was the right thing to do, and damn the political consequences.

Kai Bird spent years researching this book and pulls together a convincing story. And by the way, if someone hasn't put together a book of the best of Lillian Carter (his mother), they should. She was a hoot.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rick Perlstein did a much better job conveying the contemporary feel of Carter's presidency in Reaganland and Bird gives only a brief treatment of Carter's life after the presidency. The major exception is Bird's superior treatment of Carter's positions regarding the Palestinians and the bases and consequences of those positions. Bird's insistence that Carter was a liberal, despite his neoliberal policies and the liberal opposition they so often generated, is at the root of most of the book's weaker spots. This was still a worthy effort, as is everything I've read from Kai Bird.

[Edward Meshell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars. I’ve read a lot of books about Jimmy and this is one of if not the top one. It focuses a lot on his presidency which I thoroughly enjoyed. It felt like I was in the west wing with him in 1977-1981! Really enjoyed this read, it will definitely be referred to a lot when studying about Jimmy Carter and his life and presidency!

[Bethany Lockett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this complex and in-depth evaluation of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. It was challenging to reflect on his victories and failures, and how time has impacted our view of both. After his recent death, I was interested in his work as president since he is often better known for his post-presidential initiatives.

[Jan Peregrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Outlier~~~

Kai Bird's 2021 biography of America's 39th president, The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter, seems to me a fitting tribute to Carter, now 97, even if the Carters didn't appreciate Bird's description of Jimmy thirty years ago or today. His book is twenty-five years in the making, you could say. Bird waited for Jimmy's extensive White House diary and other archival records to be released or discovered with Jimmy's help. The former president was also interviewed several times at his ranch home in Plains, Georgia where he and Rosalyn have lived for at least fifty years.

There's a joke Jimmy enjoys about a boy, asked what he wants to be when he grows up, who replies, “a former president.”

Bird has three sections in his book: four or five-chapters on his pre-presidency, twenty or so chapters on his presidency, one chapter on his post-presidency. While the middle section comprises most of the book, the other sections were most interesting to me.

What I find most interesting in a biography is understanding the character of the person. His presidential years may interest you more, but Bird astutely started his biography on how Jimmy's rural Georgia childhood and political beginnings influenced his decisions as president. I knew about this in a very general way and learned quite a bit.

Did you know that his only friends were the sons of his father's dirt poor tenant farmers?

Did you know he and Rosalyn had three boys and then Amy fifteen years later when she was 40?

Did you know the Carter's nanny in the White House was wrongfully charged with murder and was a 'trustee' when she came to clean the Governor's mansion and that this felon has been their housekeeper since they left the White House?

I was intrigued that Jimmy broke with his racist Southern Baptist faith to embrace integration and civil rights. In fact, he defiantly hung a portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Governor's Mansion.

This could be a very long review, but I just want to present a sketch that reveals Jimmy's character.

Bird shows us a man who had many dirty tricks played on him in the White House by the Republicans, that he was too loyal to his aggressive Defense Secretary, and that he did many beneficial things as well as harmful things that kept him from winning a second term. He lost the faith of evangelicals, liberals, and progressives as well and sadly started the country's shift to a hostile, partisan, conservative trend in society. All succeeding presidents, except for Trump, have focused on human rights as inspired by Carter.

Carter's humanitarian work didn't end with his 'populist' presidency, not by a long shot, and he well deserved the Nobel Peace Prize than he won. Bird discusses how influential the Carter Center has been with its mission of conflict resolution and eradicating diseases of less developed countries.

Jimmy's administration never started or sustained a war. Never had political scandal. He didn't make himself rich and was almost bankrupt at the end. The Georgians were Washington outliers.

I've read a couple of his many books and enjoyed them. I'll have to look up the one he wrote with Rosalyn where they had to write it in separate paragraphs to keep from getting a divorce! Their marriage is a strong one still today.

The epilogue sums up Carter's many positive accomplishments and why Bird believes he was a one-term president, which isn't completely Jimmy's fault. Globalization was devastating the old structure.

Two brief photo sections are included. Highly recommended for all interested in politics.

[Brant Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve said JC was my favorite president since high school, but I didn’t know details about his presidency. I just knew he was a good person.

This book was an interesting read. It’s a shame the D.C. elites & newspapers couldn’t understand the southerner. It’s an epic shame that pressure from people inside & outside the White House, and false information, finally wore down JC enough to admit the Shah to the US, which sparked the hostage crisis. Even greater shame the Reagan campaign & co. sabotaged negotiations to ensure JC would lose reelection.

How different the US might be if our parents didn’t elect an actor (the first time).

I knew very little about JC’s massive role in facilitating Middle East peace in the face of harsh political backlash from APAC and others in the US. Given the current situation, we could use a JC right now who doesn’t cave to such pressures, but lets a moral compass guide.

He had his flaws - namely a strong commitment to fiscal conservatism that hurt the chance to pass meaningful health care reform, though not saying the commitment was misplaced. Or too strong of loyalty, which prevented him from firing necessary advisors.

A president who hated politics, and took on the hard issues when his predecessors and followers avoided them.

And afterwards! Instead of building a library as a monument to himself, he builds the JC center that has spent decades overseeing elections in struggling ‘democracies’ across the world, and runs health campaigns in developing countries to provide life-saving medicines.

If I was a political scientist, I would love to understand the climate in which the Georgian gets elected president - JC was a populist before it was cool.

Rosalynn too, is a force and a role model for all. Rest in peace.

Things were never as good as they seem in books, particularly presidential biographies, but with that in mind I enjoyed reading about my favorite president.

[Graham Connors · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 stars*

This is excellent. I know nothing of American presidential history bar the scandals (Watergate; Clinton's infidelity; Trump just being Trump). Carter's recent passing inspired me to learn more about him as he always seemed to me to be the unassuming president, a nice guy and everyday joe who just happened to find himself in the White House one day. Some of those conceptions are true, and some are not. Carter was certainly a nice guy, but he didn't fall into the presidency by accident. Was he capable? Certainly. Was he a success? That's what's up for debate, and that's the reason why I wanted to read more about Jimmy Carter.

This is a highly researched account of Carter's presidency, almost too researched. I can't say that I overly enjoyed reading this book. It's very heavy in places. I feel that a little more lightness would have elevated the narrative and made it a bit more digestible, but alas, Carter didn't seem to be a man that lightness came naturally to. Quite fitting. He certainly gave everything he had in terms of his energy, his intellect, and his morality for his country, to inject decency and honesty into his presidency. Some might perceive this as weakness, I don't. It's a shame that America didn't see it at the time, too. But, it was a different world then. Looking at what America currently has in office, I can only imagine that some of his then detractors might pray for a Jimmy Carter now.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely, but it's a slog. It's heavy, but it certainly gives you more than just an insight into Jimmy Carter. It paints him very clearly as an honest, hard-working, principled man of faith. I hope he rests peacefully now, a peace-maker.

*Don't forget to support your local library*

[Tyler Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably land more on 4.5 stars but I’ll round up because I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I wanted to learn more about President Carter after reading Reagan Land, but also, because I’m not sure any other president has done more in his post-presidency.

My view, prior to reading the book, is that Carter was one of the few presidents we have had that was a legitimately good person. The Outlier, more or less, confirms this. People aren’t perfect, but overall, my view of Carter is that he is a decent person and it seems a shame, he wasn’t re-elected. Consistently doing what he thought was right, regardless of what it mean for him politically. Also especially because, perhaps the biggest reason he wasn’t re-elected, is the rise of the Christian Right, who amazing other things were pro segregation. The Christian Right was spearheaded by the “Moral Majority” and Jerry Falwell who, in a 1950s sermon, had said “the true Negro…does not want integration.” I think I’d take Carter over anyone Jerry Falwell would endorse.

All in all, the book, gave me interesting insight on post Civil Rights American Politics. The racial and financial divide was very present in the electoral results of the 1980 election where Reagan won an electoral landslide with 14% of the African American vote while Carter had 83%. Reagan won a majority of the middle class and rich while Carter won the majority of the lower class. Carter lost to the white middle and upper class.

Kai Bird is an excellent writer and this books was a great read.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one takes some time and effort...and it pays off in spades. One of the best examinations of a US Presidency that I have ever read, and full of thoughtful analysis that doesn't sugar coat failures and presents successes in pragmatic fashion. This book makes the Carter administration look prophetic: crying in the wilderness, and only now being appreciated for what it achieved.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Longer than expecting but good nonetheless! Couple of things: had no idea habitat for humanity was Jimmy Carter, southern Democrats in the 70s really lean modern day GOP, he was a believer and a political leader who is can be respected in my book, he started a lot of things that were completed in later presidencies, and ultimately did the best he could. Unless given a reason or I missed something, I don’t have a problem with Carter and enjoy learning more about our presidents.

[Frank Murtaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The United States has had better presidents, but no better man has occupied the White House than Jimmy Carter. And he's the greatest ex-president this country will ever know. One of those human beings, I believe, better than we likely deserve. There's something profound and appropriate that he's the longest lived American president. This biography is a thorough — and brutally honest — telling of Carter's impact over his (almost) 99 years. I'm a better man for having read it. And the world's a better place because of Jimmy Carter.

[Brooks Brigmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

To explain the long reading time, I got like 75% done with this one, paused over the Summer when I left home, and picked back up when I returned and finished shortly thereafter. That’s not to say this isn’t also a massive book though, despite this, it reads at a fast pace.
What got me into reading history in the first pace was another book Kai Bird worked on about Oppenheimer, and while this wasn’t as stellar as that one, this book is still an incredible portrait of an incredible man.
At the time I’m writing this, the opinion that Jimmy Carter was actually one of our better presidents is no longer a hot take, as he has had a comeback in recent years, but reading this book helps you to understand why.
Despite the bad timing of his presidency (right after the oil embargo of the early 70’s, and alongside the Iranian revolution), Carter’s patient perseverance, and disregard for politics helped the country to move forward. I came into this book with a heavy bias toward Carter, and left with that bias being backed by the historic account of a great man, and an underrated Presidency.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Outlier: The Life and Presidency of Jimmy Carter by Kai Bird is an enlightening reassessment of Carter's presidency by putting it in line with the rest of his life. Doing so shows that what went right or wrong in his administration was less about doing the "wrong" thing but doing what he believed was the "right" thing regardless of political fallout or the impact on his reputation. When embedded in a system that rewards corruption and rarely does the "right" thing because it is right, trying to be fair and equitable becomes unpopular and comes largely to failure through efforts of those who want to undermine.

What makes this such a compelling read is that Carter is not presented as some kind of saint, his mistakes and weak points are mentioned as well as his good. But we see the consistency with which he leads his life. So often in politics, some current new upcoming right wing terrorists that have been elected to Congress are perfect examples, when a politician gains a platform those who knew them before don't recognize them. they change in big ways, not just shifting a bit on policy one way or another. Carter has been, as a human being, far more consistent than most of us and definitely far more than almost all politicians. Thus the dismal view of his term, we tried to do what he thought was right rather than what might get him reelected. And the evil regime that followed threw American lives away in order to seal that fate.

I would recommend this to those who would like to reconcile, in their minds, Carter's presidency with the Carter we have all come to respect in his post-presidency. In addition, for those who appreciate a good biography that contextualizes the events rather than simply telling them will enjoy this book.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was too young to remember much about the Jimmy Carter presidency. When I attended college in the late 1980s, I had a professor who sardonically commented that Carter was “the last president who ever died while in office”. After reading this wonderful, yet somewhat sad, biography of Carter, I now know where such sarcastic sentiments come from when looking at the ill-fated one-term presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Although one could argue that this book is in fact a biography, the vast majority of the book focuses on the four years of 1977-1980. Author Kai Bird does give us a little bit of Carter’s youth and upbringing, but does so sparingly. This section seems to be included only to emphasize the fact that the deep south was highly racist during Jimmy Carter’s youth, and the only person south of the Mason-Dixon line who was NOT a racist, was Carter himself. At least that was the feeling one gets while reading this.

We then make great leaps from Carter the youth to Carter the soldier to Carter the local politician to Carter the governor of Georgia in only a few pages. In fact, once Carter becomes governor, this book doesn’t really tell us anything he did during his tenure, other than use it as a steppingstone to the White House. There’s not really a whole lot here about the campaign during 1976 either. It seems like the author is simply trying to quickly get to the presidency since that is where he wants to put the majority of his focus. I don’t really mean this as a criticism, merely an observation. I’ll just warn you that if you’re wanting a deep dive into Jimmy Carter before he became president, I’m not sure this book will scratch your itch. In fact, AFTER the presidency, there’s only one measly chapter dealing with Carter’s life from 1980 to the present. So doing the math shows you that you get about twenty pages of book detailing forty-plus years of the man’s life.

So this book is really devoted to Carter as President of the U.S.A. The book is incredibly interesting and captivating. Sometimes books about political figures draw you too deep into the weeds and bore the helpless reader. I felt this way at times when I read Stu Eizenstat’s (Carter’s Domestic Affairs Advisor) book on The Carter administration, which included an entire 77-page chapter on stagflation. Oy. This isn’t the case with Kai Bird’s account. This book moves swiftly from event to event and each chapter is told in the exact amount of detail that is required. Obviously, such chapters that deal with the Camp David Accord and the Iranian hostage crisis go into far more detail, but it’s all necessary and never boring. In fact, there were times when I would be so enraptured when reading about the politics of Iran before the Shah was deposed, I forgot that I was actually reading a book about a presidency and not the event itself. When a chapter such as this ended, I felt rocked and jarred upon arriving at the next chapter. I simply didn’t want the former narrative to end.

Kai Bird’s underlying theme here is that Jimmy Carter was ahead of his time. Carter had great initiatives (human rights, energy conservation, environmentalism, etc.), but they weren’t really at the forefront of most voters minds back in the 1970s. The author focuses on this at the beginning, and at the end, of this book. He definitely is an apologist for Carter and is obviously a fan. Fortunately, though, this opinion isn’t tainted throughout the whole narrative. He doesn’t make excuses for Carter’s gaffes as president, and there were sadly tons. The main theme here is that Carter was (and is) a great human being, but he simply wasn’t that great of a president. In fact, we come to the conclusion that the only reason a man like Jimmy Carter could get elected president, was because the country was in more turmoil than it had ever been due to Watergate. Voters were so sick of politics as usual, that they were very eager to welcome an unheard of, fresh, smiling face into the office; even if he was a peanut farmer from the deep south. It couldn’t be worse than what they had gone through during the last four years. Could it?

Well, here is where we see the warts of Carter. The man simply doesn’t understand politics and/or how to get things done in Washington. He inherits a legislative branch that is highly tilted in the Democratic party’s favor, yet Carter seems to alienate his own base far more often than the minority party on the other side. We constantly read about conflicts with Tip O’Neill, Ted Kennedy, and a host of other liberal democrats. Even Ed Koch, the Democratic mayor of New York City, can’t stand him. Carter, it seems, simply doesn’t want to play their politics game. He also manages to alienate the high-profile Washington press corps by avoiding silly things such as cocktail parties and refusing dinner invitations. He made a lot of enemies in Washington awfully quick. If you want to be successful in Washington, you just can’t do these things.

We then must admit that he wasn’t a terribly exciting leader. Whenever Carter gave a speech or appeared on television, he always looked and sounded like a cat suffering from indigestion after eating a sour mouse. It seems like the man could never catch a break. We read about how he disappeared to Camp David for about ten days with no explanation as to why (presidents really aren’t supposed to do this), and when he comes back, delivers his infamous “malaise” speech, and then fires roughly half of his cabinet. And on and on and on.

When it comes time for the 1980 presidential race, all I could think of was “Why on this Earth would this man WANT to run again after all he’s been through??”. So this is overall a sad account, yet incredibly truthful. It says an awful lot when an author such as Kai Bird who honestly thinks highly of his subject matter, is brutally honest when revealing his subject’s multitude of shortcomings.

I loved this book. This was about 630 pages of reading material (not including sources, indices, etc.), yet I gobbled it up in less than a week. It greatly held my attention and I learned an awful lot about this particular time of history. In fact, there’s so much more I want to say about this book, but my review that I’m writing is already rather long. So I’ll conclude by saying: read this book. If you love history, you’ll love it.

[Thom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography that focuses mostly on Carter's presidency and cabinet, the "Georgia Boys" who rubbed Washington society the wrong way. Uses declassified and recently recovered notes to great advantage.

I've read some presidential biographies, but most enjoyed Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. That book showed Lincoln's genius but also focused on the directions and goals of the men that worked with him. This book shows that some of Carter's "failing" is due to his cabinet, and why. In the end, this provides a complete picture of the presidency, which was rarely evident at the time.

With over a hundred pages of notes and index, it is also an incredibly thorough book. Makes an excellent counterpoint to some of Carter's autobiographies about his boyhood in Georgia. Didn't contain enough about Carter's post-presidency, where he has become the new standard for a Christian life. May have to read Jonathan Alter's recent book on Carter to compare. Regardless, this book on his presidency is well worth reading.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Джими Картър е американският президент, който предшества Рейгън. Ако си спомним, че Рейгън идва на власт след най-голямата победа в историята на президентските избори в САЩ, можем да се замислим какво пък толкова се е изложил предшественикът му, та хората толкова единодушно да решат да го сменят.

Без съмнение, Картър е особняк както в личния, така и в политическия си живот, което понякога му носи неочаквани успехи, а другаде - очаквани негативи. Авторът Кай Бърд не крие симпатиите си към субекта на тази биография, но дори той не може да скрие, че президентството на Картър неуспешно както от икономическа гледна точка (кризата на 70-те, доколко е негова вина е друг въпрос, но не прави нищо резултатно за да се справи с нея), така и от политическа (не го избират за втори мандат).

Книгата е подробна, както подобава на биография, но поради това естествено, е доста тегава за всеки, който не е интимно заинтересуван от всякакви подробности в живота и работата на Картър.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent examination of Jimmy Carter's career with a heavy focus on his Presidency. Bird gives great insight into Carter's struggles with the liberal wing of the Democratic party as well as his many challenges in foreign policy. Bird is quick to give Carter his due for his many successes and accomplishments as President yet also spends a lot of time focusing on what Bird considers one of Carter's biggest mistakes, hiring Zgib Brzezinski as his National Security Adviser. Bird also cites Carter's advisers inability to befriend the Georgetown social set as the root of many misunderstandings and controversies that undermined Carter's credibility in the public eye.

I found this book well researched and written, a great addition to the literature on the 39th President.