What do you think?
Rate this book
An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood
In An Hour Before Daylight, Jimmy Carter, bestselling author of Living Faith and Sources of Strength, recreates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement forever changed it and the country.
Carter writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy, offering an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and a strict segregationist who treated black workers with respect and fairness; his strong-willed and well-read mother; and the five other people who shaped his early life, three of whom were black.
Carter's clean and eloquent prose evokes a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple and the rules were heartbreaking and complex. In his singular voice and with a novelist's gift for detail, Jimmy Carter creates a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation and recounts a classic, American story of enduring importance.
Carter writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy, offering an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and a strict segregationist who treated black workers with respect and fairness; his strong-willed and well-read mother; and the five other people who shaped his early life, three of whom were black.
Carter's clean and eloquent prose evokes a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple and the rules were heartbreaking and complex. In his singular voice and with a novelist's gift for detail, Jimmy Carter creates a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation and recounts a classic, American story of enduring importance.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
529 people are currently reading
3735 people want to read
About the author
Jimmy Carter
276 books640 followersLibrarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
James Earl Carter, Junior, known as Jimmy, the thirty-ninth president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, creditably established energy-conservation measures, concluded the treaties of Panama Canal in 1978, negotiated the accords of Camp David between Egypt and Israel in 1979, and won the Nobel Prize of 2002 for peace.
Ronald Wilson Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, the incumbent, in the presidential election of 1980.
He served and received. Carter served two terms in the senate of Georgia and as the 76th governor from 1971 to 1975.
Carter created new Cabinet-level Department of education. A national policy included price decontrol and new technology. From 1977, people reduced foreign oil imports one-half to 1982. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the second round of strategic arms limitation talks (SALT). Carter sought to put a stronger emphasis on human rights in 1979. People saw his return of the zone as a major concession of influence in Latin America, and Carter came under heavy criticism.
Iranian students in 1979 took over the American embassy and held hostages, and an attempt to rescue them failed; several additional major crises, including serious fuel shortages and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, marked the final year of his tenure. Edward Moore Kennedy challenged significantly higher disapproval ratings of Carter for nomination of the Democratic Party before the election of 1980. Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination lost the election to Ronald Wilson Reagan, a Republican.
Carter left office and with Rosalynn Smith Carter, his wife, afterward founded the nongovernmental center and organization that works to advance human rights. He traveled extensively to conduct, to observe elections, and to advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. He, a key, also figured in the project of habitat for humanity. Carter particularly vocalized on the Palestinian conflict.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/jimmyc...
James Earl Carter, Junior, known as Jimmy, the thirty-ninth president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, creditably established energy-conservation measures, concluded the treaties of Panama Canal in 1978, negotiated the accords of Camp David between Egypt and Israel in 1979, and won the Nobel Prize of 2002 for peace.
Ronald Wilson Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, the incumbent, in the presidential election of 1980.
He served and received. Carter served two terms in the senate of Georgia and as the 76th governor from 1971 to 1975.
Carter created new Cabinet-level Department of education. A national policy included price decontrol and new technology. From 1977, people reduced foreign oil imports one-half to 1982. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the second round of strategic arms limitation talks (SALT). Carter sought to put a stronger emphasis on human rights in 1979. People saw his return of the zone as a major concession of influence in Latin America, and Carter came under heavy criticism.
Iranian students in 1979 took over the American embassy and held hostages, and an attempt to rescue them failed; several additional major crises, including serious fuel shortages and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, marked the final year of his tenure. Edward Moore Kennedy challenged significantly higher disapproval ratings of Carter for nomination of the Democratic Party before the election of 1980. Carter defeated Kennedy for the nomination lost the election to Ronald Wilson Reagan, a Republican.
Carter left office and with Rosalynn Smith Carter, his wife, afterward founded the nongovernmental center and organization that works to advance human rights. He traveled extensively to conduct, to observe elections, and to advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. He, a key, also figured in the project of habitat for humanity. Carter particularly vocalized on the Palestinian conflict.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/jimmyc...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 486 reviews
August 26, 2024
Presidential memoirs are not naturally my favorite kind of book, but I’m glad I read this one. In President Carter’s case if this memoir of his boyhood doesn’t appeal, there are at least two others and at least 27 other books that he wrote. As you read this book you will see that is very typical of him. Nothing in his life was done by halves. He will turn 100 this October of 2024. Approximately the first third of this book covers agriculture and life on his family farm, although he spent his very early years in the town of Plains. Farming is an absorbing topic here in the mid-1920s through his graduation from high school in 1941.
Carter describes farm life in detail and lets the reader know how difficult this life was at the time. I think he may over-state his case a little but cites research and statistics. Talking with my father who was reasonably close in age to Carter, I can tell farm life was very similar almost anywhere in the United States at this time, for most of the same reasons—small underfunded farms, uncooperative weather in this period, outdated methods, depression era money issues, and government tinkering.
The one thing that was vastly different here was that many black families lived the farming life and if it was hard for whites, it was at least twice as hard for blacks. Segregation and the presiding social system was not fair in any way. Carter tries to explain it here and worked to ameliorate the issues when it was possible as a farmer, business owner, state senator and as president of the United States.
The rest of the book covers education, church upbringing, hunting and fishing (too much for me), sports, social life, his family, a little about his naval career and the naval academy and only briefly touches on his presidency. He can be surprisingly honest and earthy.
All of his hardships and his grit seem to have contributed to his later successes and maybe his downfalls too. It can be tiring listening to his work, work, work (title of the book An Hour Before Daylight), his entrepreneurship—the businesses he ran as a child—he owned five tenant houses by age 11, his mania for reading and succeeding in school, his frantic desire to please his “daddy” who comes off as a cold and not very encouraging man. Frankly, I think I would not have liked Jimmy much as a child. I’m sure he was that kid who always had his hand up in the classroom and always had to be number one. He read War and Peace in the fifth grade. Later as president he had the reputation as a micromanager who even dictated times on the White House tennis courts. Delegating did not come naturally to him. Something I do not notice here is him being particularly fun or lovable. I did enjoy my time reading this 500 plus page book though. Suprise, Suprise.
Carter describes farm life in detail and lets the reader know how difficult this life was at the time. I think he may over-state his case a little but cites research and statistics. Talking with my father who was reasonably close in age to Carter, I can tell farm life was very similar almost anywhere in the United States at this time, for most of the same reasons—small underfunded farms, uncooperative weather in this period, outdated methods, depression era money issues, and government tinkering.
The one thing that was vastly different here was that many black families lived the farming life and if it was hard for whites, it was at least twice as hard for blacks. Segregation and the presiding social system was not fair in any way. Carter tries to explain it here and worked to ameliorate the issues when it was possible as a farmer, business owner, state senator and as president of the United States.
The rest of the book covers education, church upbringing, hunting and fishing (too much for me), sports, social life, his family, a little about his naval career and the naval academy and only briefly touches on his presidency. He can be surprisingly honest and earthy.
All of his hardships and his grit seem to have contributed to his later successes and maybe his downfalls too. It can be tiring listening to his work, work, work (title of the book An Hour Before Daylight), his entrepreneurship—the businesses he ran as a child—he owned five tenant houses by age 11, his mania for reading and succeeding in school, his frantic desire to please his “daddy” who comes off as a cold and not very encouraging man. Frankly, I think I would not have liked Jimmy much as a child. I’m sure he was that kid who always had his hand up in the classroom and always had to be number one. He read War and Peace in the fifth grade. Later as president he had the reputation as a micromanager who even dictated times on the White House tennis courts. Delegating did not come naturally to him. Something I do not notice here is him being particularly fun or lovable. I did enjoy my time reading this 500 plus page book though. Suprise, Suprise.
July 11, 2011
What a privilege to step inside the childhood of one of the most extraordinary living Americans. This is easily in the top 5 books I've read in 2011.
(by the way: I feel like this book never got the press it deserved because it came out late 2001... oops).
I wasn't expecting to read this in 48 hours... and yet, I couldn't put it down. This book, a collection of memories from Carter's upbringing in rural Georgia during the depression, paints such a vivid picture of that time and place in America that it's a valuable read for anyone even if you don't admire Jimmy Carter as much as I do.
I feel like I now understand so much more about the economics and culture of agriculture during that time, and the social landscape of segregation. Carter spent much of his boyhood at the kitchen tables of Black sharecroppers on his family farm, and the writing employs subtlety to demonstrate what that relationship was like. I learned so much about the long-held resentment towards the North that families harbored since the Civil War-- not just that they held these feelings but the way it manifested in their daily lives and culture.
The writing is fantastic. Carter (or his ghostwriter) exercises some restraint; while at times I wished there was more in-depth discussion on how these experiences influenced him, I appreciated the simple narrative style, leaving the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. This style made the book more like a collection of simple vignettes about a boy on a farm, except the reader remains thinking about the deeper meaning after reading.
The very last line of the book made me cry, thinking about the way the world changes and how we need to accept that, rather than clinging to our personal histories. I just loved this book, cover to cover.
(by the way: I feel like this book never got the press it deserved because it came out late 2001... oops).
I wasn't expecting to read this in 48 hours... and yet, I couldn't put it down. This book, a collection of memories from Carter's upbringing in rural Georgia during the depression, paints such a vivid picture of that time and place in America that it's a valuable read for anyone even if you don't admire Jimmy Carter as much as I do.
I feel like I now understand so much more about the economics and culture of agriculture during that time, and the social landscape of segregation. Carter spent much of his boyhood at the kitchen tables of Black sharecroppers on his family farm, and the writing employs subtlety to demonstrate what that relationship was like. I learned so much about the long-held resentment towards the North that families harbored since the Civil War-- not just that they held these feelings but the way it manifested in their daily lives and culture.
The writing is fantastic. Carter (or his ghostwriter) exercises some restraint; while at times I wished there was more in-depth discussion on how these experiences influenced him, I appreciated the simple narrative style, leaving the reader to draw his/her own conclusions. This style made the book more like a collection of simple vignettes about a boy on a farm, except the reader remains thinking about the deeper meaning after reading.
The very last line of the book made me cry, thinking about the way the world changes and how we need to accept that, rather than clinging to our personal histories. I just loved this book, cover to cover.
September 30, 2015
This was my second read. Something about being pregnant makes me want to read about great men, and regardless of what you think about his time as POTUS, Carter is a great humanitarian and champion of equality. It's a simple, meandering memoir about his childhood. An easy read for when nausea kept me from reading more than a half page at a time. Lovely in its recollections of the people who influenced him, the charm and struggle of farm life, but honest in his portrayal of race relations in the South, pre-Civil right's movement (the title is a metaphor for that time).
April 5, 2013
Jimmy Carter is our best writer of any of our living presidents, including Mr. Barack Obama. It's simply amazing how good Mr. Carter is as a writer. His prose is sparse, lean and simple. He shows, not tell. It's simple enough for a 10 year old, yet powerful enough for 100 year old. His portrait of his childhood and early adulthood in and around Plains is powerful. I was struck with how rich his life was, much more so than that of kids today. His life was immersed in farm, country, family, school and friendship. It was also more dangerous, with rabies, hookworm and many other ailments always threatening. He came from a prosperous farm, so it was more striking at how medieval his life was. His family farm, in the late 1930s, had no running water, no sewers, no electricity. His father plowed with a plow and a mule. No tractors. Light was from kerosene lamps. Water from wells. Amazing. Things have changed.
June 8, 2024
I last visited Plains, Georgia more years ago than I care to admit, even though I’ve lived about a day trip away for a very long time. It’s out of the way enough that it’s not someplace you’re likely to just happen to find yourself in - if you’re in Plains, it’s probably because you purposely, specifically wanted to go there.
So after finally getting around to (purposely, specifically) paying a return visit to Plains this week, I thought it would be a good time to pull out this slim volume, which I’ve had for a long time but had never actually read, even though I know most of its stories from having read them cited in other books, articles and interviews with, by and about Jimmy Carter.
The book on its own is absorbing enough - the title alone is the best and most poetically evocative of any of Carter’s many books - but it proved to be even more so when combined with a visit to its setting, seeing the very places I had just read about, or reading about the places I had just seen. The book’s early chapters are the best, where Carter’s writing is at its most vibrant and descriptive, telling simple stories but with a strong sense of place as he describes his early life at home, on his farm, with his family and friends and neighbors. With the pace of progress today, it’s remarkable to consider how the Depression-era rural south was so little changed from the time of Carter’s ancestors, and how someone alive today grew up in a time and place that feels like it could have been from a century earlier.
Very rarely in these early chapters does Carter even reference anything about his later life or his presidency. When he does on occasion, it’s almost jarring - I found myself so into his well-written prose and well-told stories that I almost forgot at times who the author is and who he became.
Carter’s stories about his upbringing are supplemented at times with diligent research, so it’s clear he put a lot of work into what amounts to much more than a simple collection of reminiscences - he frequently incorporates facts and statistics to provide a larger context around the time and the place he grew up. As the book progresses, Carter can sometimes get a bit too detailed about, say, farming techniques or his elders’ life stories or various happenings in the community - memories that might be somewhat more meaningful to him than to his readers. Even he seems to acknowledge that the book is a little less focused at times, referring to what he calls his “sometimes random recollections.”
He even seems slightly unsure about the purpose of his own book - on the one hand he attempts to position it as shedding some light on the people and experiences that shaped him, while on the other hand he acknowledges that his siblings had the same family and similar experiences and turned out very differently, so maybe their upbringing was not as crucial to the people they became after all. That said, race relations, which did prove to be important in Carter’s later life, is an important subtext throughout the book. Carter’s difficult relationship with his father is more hinted at than expounded upon, but mostly because he seems to have chosen to focus on the positive in this book. Some of his memories seem a bit gauzy, some minor details were later found to be incorrect, and some very long direct quotes he attributes to others can't possibly be word-for-word accurate decades after they were supposedly spoken, but this is not a rigorous academic work of history, so one is inclined to give him a pass in how he chooses to tell his own life story.
Ultimately, the book reads like something a grandfather would pass down to his grandchildren, regardless of whether that grandfather turned out to be president. It’s a look at how life used to be, so the younger generations can appreciate where they came from. Indeed, Carter dedicates the book to his then-youngest grandchild, in the hopes it might help him “better comprehend the lives of his ancestors.”
Early in the book, Carter observes about his hometown that “there is a sense of permanence in Plains.” And he’s right that change has come slowly to the town where he grew up and where he’s chosen to live out his last days. And yet, however slowly, change has and will come. When I last visited in the early 90’s, the local school and Carter’s boyhood home that he was later to write about in this book were derelict and abandoned, the town’s main street unassumingly included a modest antique and gift shop run by a Carter cousin, you could still fill up if you chose to at Billy Carter’s old gas station, and you might actually get to meet the Carters in town (and I did). While tourists still visited, the crowds that once flocked to the town during the Carter presidency had long since gone, and life in Plains simply went on.
Today, the school and boyhood home (and Billy’s gas station) are museums, the Carters’ current home someday will be as well, and the main street is home to a smattering of… it would be uncharitable to call them tourist traps, so I won’t. And while Carter’s presence is still felt all over town, running into him in person is not going to happen anymore. So Plains itself is slowly changing again, as it goes through something of a transition from the home of a celebrated local resident, to a more permanent historical memorial to one of nearly four dozen Americans who held our country’s highest office for a time, as their lives and presidencies gradually fade ever further into the distant past.
And this book, as written by a grandfather and dedicated to his grandson, ensures that his life and his history will be preserved, in his own words, for generations to come. It ends wistfully but not dejectedly, as Carter assumes none of his children or grandchildren will want to carry on farming their ancestral land as he did, but he understands and doesn't fault them for it. Life in Plains will go on regardless. Overall, this is a quick, enjoyable, accessible read, and also an excellent complement to a visit to Plains itself, allowing the reader and/or visitor to appreciate how important Plains has been to Carter - and how important Carter has and always will be to Plains.
So after finally getting around to (purposely, specifically) paying a return visit to Plains this week, I thought it would be a good time to pull out this slim volume, which I’ve had for a long time but had never actually read, even though I know most of its stories from having read them cited in other books, articles and interviews with, by and about Jimmy Carter.
The book on its own is absorbing enough - the title alone is the best and most poetically evocative of any of Carter’s many books - but it proved to be even more so when combined with a visit to its setting, seeing the very places I had just read about, or reading about the places I had just seen. The book’s early chapters are the best, where Carter’s writing is at its most vibrant and descriptive, telling simple stories but with a strong sense of place as he describes his early life at home, on his farm, with his family and friends and neighbors. With the pace of progress today, it’s remarkable to consider how the Depression-era rural south was so little changed from the time of Carter’s ancestors, and how someone alive today grew up in a time and place that feels like it could have been from a century earlier.
Very rarely in these early chapters does Carter even reference anything about his later life or his presidency. When he does on occasion, it’s almost jarring - I found myself so into his well-written prose and well-told stories that I almost forgot at times who the author is and who he became.
Carter’s stories about his upbringing are supplemented at times with diligent research, so it’s clear he put a lot of work into what amounts to much more than a simple collection of reminiscences - he frequently incorporates facts and statistics to provide a larger context around the time and the place he grew up. As the book progresses, Carter can sometimes get a bit too detailed about, say, farming techniques or his elders’ life stories or various happenings in the community - memories that might be somewhat more meaningful to him than to his readers. Even he seems to acknowledge that the book is a little less focused at times, referring to what he calls his “sometimes random recollections.”
He even seems slightly unsure about the purpose of his own book - on the one hand he attempts to position it as shedding some light on the people and experiences that shaped him, while on the other hand he acknowledges that his siblings had the same family and similar experiences and turned out very differently, so maybe their upbringing was not as crucial to the people they became after all. That said, race relations, which did prove to be important in Carter’s later life, is an important subtext throughout the book. Carter’s difficult relationship with his father is more hinted at than expounded upon, but mostly because he seems to have chosen to focus on the positive in this book. Some of his memories seem a bit gauzy, some minor details were later found to be incorrect, and some very long direct quotes he attributes to others can't possibly be word-for-word accurate decades after they were supposedly spoken, but this is not a rigorous academic work of history, so one is inclined to give him a pass in how he chooses to tell his own life story.
Ultimately, the book reads like something a grandfather would pass down to his grandchildren, regardless of whether that grandfather turned out to be president. It’s a look at how life used to be, so the younger generations can appreciate where they came from. Indeed, Carter dedicates the book to his then-youngest grandchild, in the hopes it might help him “better comprehend the lives of his ancestors.”
Early in the book, Carter observes about his hometown that “there is a sense of permanence in Plains.” And he’s right that change has come slowly to the town where he grew up and where he’s chosen to live out his last days. And yet, however slowly, change has and will come. When I last visited in the early 90’s, the local school and Carter’s boyhood home that he was later to write about in this book were derelict and abandoned, the town’s main street unassumingly included a modest antique and gift shop run by a Carter cousin, you could still fill up if you chose to at Billy Carter’s old gas station, and you might actually get to meet the Carters in town (and I did). While tourists still visited, the crowds that once flocked to the town during the Carter presidency had long since gone, and life in Plains simply went on.
Today, the school and boyhood home (and Billy’s gas station) are museums, the Carters’ current home someday will be as well, and the main street is home to a smattering of… it would be uncharitable to call them tourist traps, so I won’t. And while Carter’s presence is still felt all over town, running into him in person is not going to happen anymore. So Plains itself is slowly changing again, as it goes through something of a transition from the home of a celebrated local resident, to a more permanent historical memorial to one of nearly four dozen Americans who held our country’s highest office for a time, as their lives and presidencies gradually fade ever further into the distant past.
And this book, as written by a grandfather and dedicated to his grandson, ensures that his life and his history will be preserved, in his own words, for generations to come. It ends wistfully but not dejectedly, as Carter assumes none of his children or grandchildren will want to carry on farming their ancestral land as he did, but he understands and doesn't fault them for it. Life in Plains will go on regardless. Overall, this is a quick, enjoyable, accessible read, and also an excellent complement to a visit to Plains itself, allowing the reader and/or visitor to appreciate how important Plains has been to Carter - and how important Carter has and always will be to Plains.
May 30, 2022
An Hour Before Daylight is like a five hour long one-sided conversation with your grandpa whose stories, despite many being repeated, will make you laugh and cry and, in the case of Jimmy Carter’s book, feel like you understand the dynamics of Depression-era rural Georgia. It is a wonderful and endearing glimpse into Jimmy Carter’s kind soul and his boyhood that shaped the man and President he would become.
August 26, 2023
In this book Jimmy Carter writes about his childhood on his family’s Depression-era farm in Plains, Georgia. Waking up before dawn he helped out with tasks from a very early age and graduated to more complicated jobs as he got older. From plowing fields to making sausage, there was always something that needed to be done.
He also describes small town life, explores family dynamics, and discusses segregation. While many of the topics are serious, he throws in some very humorous anecdotes as well. It rambles at times but he always brings it back to his parents and the other people in his life who influenced him. An inspiring read.
He also describes small town life, explores family dynamics, and discusses segregation. While many of the topics are serious, he throws in some very humorous anecdotes as well. It rambles at times but he always brings it back to his parents and the other people in his life who influenced him. An inspiring read.
August 13, 2012
Don't let politics keep you from reading this memoir. Excellent!
September 16, 2018
This is about the lightest reading that one will ever get from a former President. In this easily readable and quite enjoyable, brisk-paced memoir, Jimmy Carter recounts his boyhood growing up in rural Plains, GA. Born in 1924, Carter focuses basically on the decade of the 1930s, with some very early memories from when he was just a few years old, up to his high school graduation in 1941. Following that, Carter spent one year at a local college, then a year at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, before embarking on what he thought would be a career in the U.S. Navy. Throughout this book, Carter is personal, honest when it hurts to be honest, and respectful of the people who were a part of his childhood - all characteristics that would surprise nobody given Carter's human and decent nature.
The dominant relationship here is Carter and his father. James Earl Carter, Sr. was a successful general store owner who later ran a large, complex farm. I have often heard media or politicians unfriendly to Carter refer to him as "a peanut farmer". That is misleading at best, and dismissive at worst, of the many aspects that Carter had to take control of when he abruptly resigned his Navy commission and returned to run the farm following his father's death in 1953. Carter's father did have a large holding peanuts, and they were one of the big sources of revenue. But so was the syrup mill operation, cotton, pecans, sweet potatoes, pigs, cattle, chickens, turkeys, corn, and many other crops. Carter Sr. had tenant farmers (all black) on his land and still operated a concession store on Saturdays. This was not some hayseed hick farmer who was barely literate. As was the custom, with young Jimmy being the oldest, and also the only son for quite some time, Sr. made Jimmy learn the farm operations. However, as Carter later mentions, his dad never specifically made mention of wanting him to take over the farm one day, and in fact encouraged him to join the Navy - repeatedly lobbying the Congressman of their district for an appointment.
But there was a lack of intimacy between them. Carter mentioned that very early in the book, and he returns to it at the end. Carter Sr. withheld praise for jobs well done, yet sometimes did not hesitate to inflict punishment for transgressions. It did not seem like, or Carter either does not remember or left it out, that they ever talked much about life in general, what Carter would do for a career, or enjoy many moments that were not related to something on the farm. I got the sense that Carter regrets this, especially since he was only in his late 20s when Sr. died of cancer. While he writes at length about his mother as well, and several other family members, the father is always the one who stands out from the rest. This might have been due to a mixture of the place and time, the personalities involved, and Carter's own yearnings.
He also writes about race, and how he really did not think much of segregation as a boy because that is all he, and anyone else living there, knew. To him as a child, it was just the way it was that his black friends could not attend the same school as he did, or sit next to him in the movie theater. Carter quickly developed a consciousness about this as he became a teenager, and of course actively opposed racism and segregation as an adult. Also, again given the time and place, his mother seemed to be remarkably progressive in her views on race, and even his dad, while not outspoken in any way about race matters, was known to treat blacks and whites equally in business dealings and did not approve of any racist organizations or sentiments. Of course, being the white owner of a farm, he operated from a clear position of authority with any black person who worked for him.
Not until the last few pages does Carter really talk about his two sisters, Gloria and Ruth, in more than passing references. I had wondered as I went through the book: why did he only bring them up when it related to some specific family function? Did he not get along with them? He somewhat answered that at the end: he did not really get along with them. Later as an adult he became close to Ruth. And his brother Billy, whose unfiltered comments tended to cause grief for Carter once he became famous, is not in the picture at all until the final couple of pages. Born many years after Carter, he simply was not alive for most of the events depicted in this book. This is a good read for anyone wanting to learn more about Carter and how his childhood experiences influenced his later life.
Grade: A-
The dominant relationship here is Carter and his father. James Earl Carter, Sr. was a successful general store owner who later ran a large, complex farm. I have often heard media or politicians unfriendly to Carter refer to him as "a peanut farmer". That is misleading at best, and dismissive at worst, of the many aspects that Carter had to take control of when he abruptly resigned his Navy commission and returned to run the farm following his father's death in 1953. Carter's father did have a large holding peanuts, and they were one of the big sources of revenue. But so was the syrup mill operation, cotton, pecans, sweet potatoes, pigs, cattle, chickens, turkeys, corn, and many other crops. Carter Sr. had tenant farmers (all black) on his land and still operated a concession store on Saturdays. This was not some hayseed hick farmer who was barely literate. As was the custom, with young Jimmy being the oldest, and also the only son for quite some time, Sr. made Jimmy learn the farm operations. However, as Carter later mentions, his dad never specifically made mention of wanting him to take over the farm one day, and in fact encouraged him to join the Navy - repeatedly lobbying the Congressman of their district for an appointment.
But there was a lack of intimacy between them. Carter mentioned that very early in the book, and he returns to it at the end. Carter Sr. withheld praise for jobs well done, yet sometimes did not hesitate to inflict punishment for transgressions. It did not seem like, or Carter either does not remember or left it out, that they ever talked much about life in general, what Carter would do for a career, or enjoy many moments that were not related to something on the farm. I got the sense that Carter regrets this, especially since he was only in his late 20s when Sr. died of cancer. While he writes at length about his mother as well, and several other family members, the father is always the one who stands out from the rest. This might have been due to a mixture of the place and time, the personalities involved, and Carter's own yearnings.
He also writes about race, and how he really did not think much of segregation as a boy because that is all he, and anyone else living there, knew. To him as a child, it was just the way it was that his black friends could not attend the same school as he did, or sit next to him in the movie theater. Carter quickly developed a consciousness about this as he became a teenager, and of course actively opposed racism and segregation as an adult. Also, again given the time and place, his mother seemed to be remarkably progressive in her views on race, and even his dad, while not outspoken in any way about race matters, was known to treat blacks and whites equally in business dealings and did not approve of any racist organizations or sentiments. Of course, being the white owner of a farm, he operated from a clear position of authority with any black person who worked for him.
Not until the last few pages does Carter really talk about his two sisters, Gloria and Ruth, in more than passing references. I had wondered as I went through the book: why did he only bring them up when it related to some specific family function? Did he not get along with them? He somewhat answered that at the end: he did not really get along with them. Later as an adult he became close to Ruth. And his brother Billy, whose unfiltered comments tended to cause grief for Carter once he became famous, is not in the picture at all until the final couple of pages. Born many years after Carter, he simply was not alive for most of the events depicted in this book. This is a good read for anyone wanting to learn more about Carter and how his childhood experiences influenced his later life.
Grade: A-
April 28, 2020
Jimmy Carter’s memoir of his childhood and teenage years invites the reader into his home, his father’s store, and the network of hired labor that worked the family farms. Covering his birth through his entry into college, An Hour Before Daylight is a very personal stroll through Depression-era Southwest Georgia.
While I did not like the jumbled nature of the story—not chronological and the content of individual chapters seemed to barely match their titles—the descriptions of the people, places, and tasks truly made me feel like I was there. In reading of the life of president #39, I found the most detailed presentation of a farmer’s life since reading president #1. The country lifestyle quickly reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, and the Southern way of life also recalled The Help and Where the Crawdads Sing.
Carter’s depictions of segregation and the black community seem mostly fair, but claiming he “knew two languages” growing up by being able to speak like his neighbors was quite the stretch. A whole paragraph of alternate pronunciations was too much.
Ultimately, though he played a constant role in the book, I could feel the disconnection between Jimmy and his father. It felt like more of a business relationship, but I believe his father wanted greater things for his firstborn son than the struggling life of a farmer. His mother’s active life into her seventies says a lot about her son’s ability to keep working into his nineties.
Just the third book I’ve read written by a president, this one may be the best so far. But I will have more of them on my list on my second run through the history of the US starting next year.
While I did not like the jumbled nature of the story—not chronological and the content of individual chapters seemed to barely match their titles—the descriptions of the people, places, and tasks truly made me feel like I was there. In reading of the life of president #39, I found the most detailed presentation of a farmer’s life since reading president #1. The country lifestyle quickly reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, and the Southern way of life also recalled The Help and Where the Crawdads Sing.
Carter’s depictions of segregation and the black community seem mostly fair, but claiming he “knew two languages” growing up by being able to speak like his neighbors was quite the stretch. A whole paragraph of alternate pronunciations was too much.
Ultimately, though he played a constant role in the book, I could feel the disconnection between Jimmy and his father. It felt like more of a business relationship, but I believe his father wanted greater things for his firstborn son than the struggling life of a farmer. His mother’s active life into her seventies says a lot about her son’s ability to keep working into his nineties.
Just the third book I’ve read written by a president, this one may be the best so far. But I will have more of them on my list on my second run through the history of the US starting next year.
April 7, 2021
I read this for a book group. I always liked and admired Jimmy Carter as a president. His memoir was interesting reading but a troublesome commentary on what life was like in the Depression-era south. Boyhood life as recalled here was hard -- but he was a privileged child of a prominent family, and it must have been unimaginably harder for those not so fortunate. I noted near the end of the book his comment that his (black) childhood friend A.D. Davis "got married; he eventually had twelve children, served four years in prison on a conviction of forgery, and then lived the rest of his life peacefully in Plains." A.D. was the boy Jimmy Carter most admired in childhood, but one who could not attend the white school, and who, around the age of 14, began to defer to him, as was apparently considered proper at that time. What might HE have accomplished had had the world been different?
September 8, 2012
The first election I remember was Jimmy Carter's. I was in 3rd grade, & I voted for him in a mock election at school. Ford received only one vote in our class, so Carter won by a landslide! Also that same year, I wrote a letter to President Carter & received a photo of his family standing in front of the White House. I can still see in my mind his signature stamped on the front & little Amy standing in the front row in a white sundress. I'd give anything if I still had that picture!
Obviously I chose this book because I was a Carter fan from the beginning. I wanted to know more about the man I idolized when I was young. I remembered Habitat for Humanity & the way Carter continued to do good deeds long after he left the presidency.
I learned many fascinating facts in this book, things I never picked up or would have understood as a child. For instance, despite growing up in Georgia during a time that slavery was an acceptable thing, Carter's father died in the arms of the Black woman who had taken care of his children. She had traveled to be with him while he was dying. Jimmy Carter's mother was a nurse who didn't seem to care about social norms concerning racism, & she would care for Black people when they were sick accepting whatever they wanted to offer her instead of money.
Racism during the time of Carter's childhood is only one aspect of this great book. If you liked Jimmy Carter at all, you'll enjoy learning about his life in this memoir.
Obviously I chose this book because I was a Carter fan from the beginning. I wanted to know more about the man I idolized when I was young. I remembered Habitat for Humanity & the way Carter continued to do good deeds long after he left the presidency.
I learned many fascinating facts in this book, things I never picked up or would have understood as a child. For instance, despite growing up in Georgia during a time that slavery was an acceptable thing, Carter's father died in the arms of the Black woman who had taken care of his children. She had traveled to be with him while he was dying. Jimmy Carter's mother was a nurse who didn't seem to care about social norms concerning racism, & she would care for Black people when they were sick accepting whatever they wanted to offer her instead of money.
Racism during the time of Carter's childhood is only one aspect of this great book. If you liked Jimmy Carter at all, you'll enjoy learning about his life in this memoir.
July 18, 2023
I always knew that President Lincoln grew up in a log cabin, but never knew President Carter grew up not wearing shoes.
July 17, 2014
Very interesting - I really had almost no idea about the childhood years of this particular past president of ours. His responsibilities and freedom as a boy (for example selling on main street boiled peanuts which he prepared himself at age 5) are things which are almost completely foreign to us in our present society. Super-interesting in terms of what he did later in life, to hear of his boyhood exploits. His relationships (or lack of) with his parents and siblings - and his other relationships through the eyes of a Southern child, with loved ones of different races - all of this was very revealing and thought-provoking in terms of the times. The writing was good. I listened to this on tape, narrated by him, and his voice is sometimes a little lacking expression I thought - but it was fun to hear his soft accent especially on some words. This book was a window into a time and place, into one small person's world. That small person having lived as a barefoot sharecropper's son, smack in the middle of the pre-civil rights South and then becoming one of our country's highest leaders. By the way, he often had his nose in a book as a boy. It was also interesting to me to read this because of the fact that he is probably our most successful EX-president.
February 3, 2017
I re-read this book for a presentation I do on"Biographies of People of Faith." This is a very well-written autobiography. For persons who believe that a white person being raised in the rural South automatically makes a person a racist, this book serves as an excellent counter-example. Jimmy Carter was raised around tiny Plains, Georgia. Most of his playmates were black children, and two of the adults he was closest to (and whose home he often stayed at) were a black couple who helped on their farm. As an adult his business was boycotted by racist groups because he encouraged blacks to vote and own land. As President he proclaimed "a New South" which was moving beyond its racist past (While a backlash is currently evident, strong voices for racial understanding still exist, partly the result of Carter's legacy.) Being raised in the South during tough economic times (the depression) also made him sensitive to the needs of the poor, an attitude later expressed in his work for Habitat for Humanity. After establishing the Carter Center with wife Rosalyn, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. While there are varying opinions on the effectiveness of Jimmy Carter's Presidency, there is a widespread belief that he might be the most influential, respected ex-President we have ever had.
July 23, 2020
Jimmy Carter tells the story of his childhood in this book. Not his first work of autobiography, this book focuses not only on himself but the ghosts of his past: his parents and siblings (all dead by the time he wrote this) and the rural Georgia farms of the 1920s and '30s. This was still an agricultural area but his parents had a variety of other interests (his father a businessman, his mother a nurse). Young "Hot" (as his father called him) even had an entrepreneurial side, selling bags of peanuts from the farm in Plains as a small boy. At times a bit rambling, the book is more often affecting. First-person accounts of the rural South and the Great Depression appeal to me and those were the parts of the book I enjoyed the most. He does not shy away from the segregation that colored every aspect of that time. The love and affection he expresses for the black people who were almost as important to him as his parents is clear. Carter's extensive writing career since leaving the White House helps keep the book on track, allowing him to tell his story simply. A unique and well-written presidential memoir.
February 9, 2024
Finally, a book almost as boring as the Carter presidency itself! Typically, I’m a sucker for books about the south, rural living and the lifestyles of presidents. This story combines all three, and the ex-president makes it an effort to be dry. Carter, the son of a southwest Georgia landowner, grew up amongst sharecroppers in the desperately poor depression years. In no romantic terms, he traces his upbringing, and the best parts of his book focus on the relationships with and personalities of those around him — notably, his parents, black tenants and their children. When Carter steers toward the minutiae of farm life, it screeches to a halt, with extraneous details about his chores. Carter also invites gentle ribbing about his tall tale-ish, moral parables — you’d think he was the most noble of children to grace the state of Georgia. Anyway, there are some decent parts, including some thoughts on the realities of living in time when racial discrimination was an accepted way of life.
August 20, 2009
its ok...i've read better depression era memoirs and his take on race relations in that era seemed a bit romanticized and naive to me. he acknowledges the racism that black people he grew up with must have suffered but complains about the loss of familiarity between blacks and whites today, as if that was not influenced by the power dynamic that must have existed. this is especially true given that most of the black people he grew up with worked for or rented land from his father.
April 15, 2025
In my view, the first quality that a presidential candidate have is that they be a decent human being, a quality Jimmy Carter had in spades. While maybe not as impressive as president, few will match his empathy, kindness, willingness to assist others, truthfulness or compassion. This book details his growing up in Plains, GA, part of a farming family with a lot of information on the mores of the '30s and '40s and relationships among the races. Quite a religious individual who taught Sunday school until late in his life, the book also discusses the influence of the church as he grew up.
I remember some years ago as I drove from the Tampa area to Atlanta for business, I decided to take a side trip to Andersonville Prison, the horrible Confederate POW facility where so many Union soldiers died and the subject of the novel of the same name, the 900 page best seller and '56 Pulitzer prize winner by Mac Kinlay Kantor. After my visit, I noticed I was not too far from Plains, Jimmy Carter's home town so I headed over.
Plains is an interesting place and after strolling the "downtown" I stopped in at a schoolhouse where Carter attended and which has since been converted to a museum. In memory of my visit, I snagged a couple of books he had written and as I paid for them the clerk asked if I would like them signed. Say what? She explained that they send the books to the Carter Center in Atlanta and when he stops there every few weeks, he signs the books and they mail them on. Wow! Of course I wanted them signed! They arrived at my home about 3 weeks later, an amazing gesture thinks I for a former president. Maybe part of being an all around nice guy.
Carter was probably the most prolific writer among presidents having published more than 3 dozen and having written (as far as I know) the only novel - "The Hornet's Nest" - a tale of the Revolutionary war fought in Georgia. Yeah, who knew?! This book on his growing up is well written, demonstrates a great memory and attention to detail.
Naturally it appeals to those with an interest in presidential history but I think it would have great appeal to anyone exploring life in the Southeast during those years. A very enjoyable read!
I remember some years ago as I drove from the Tampa area to Atlanta for business, I decided to take a side trip to Andersonville Prison, the horrible Confederate POW facility where so many Union soldiers died and the subject of the novel of the same name, the 900 page best seller and '56 Pulitzer prize winner by Mac Kinlay Kantor. After my visit, I noticed I was not too far from Plains, Jimmy Carter's home town so I headed over.
Plains is an interesting place and after strolling the "downtown" I stopped in at a schoolhouse where Carter attended and which has since been converted to a museum. In memory of my visit, I snagged a couple of books he had written and as I paid for them the clerk asked if I would like them signed. Say what? She explained that they send the books to the Carter Center in Atlanta and when he stops there every few weeks, he signs the books and they mail them on. Wow! Of course I wanted them signed! They arrived at my home about 3 weeks later, an amazing gesture thinks I for a former president. Maybe part of being an all around nice guy.
Carter was probably the most prolific writer among presidents having published more than 3 dozen and having written (as far as I know) the only novel - "The Hornet's Nest" - a tale of the Revolutionary war fought in Georgia. Yeah, who knew?! This book on his growing up is well written, demonstrates a great memory and attention to detail.
Naturally it appeals to those with an interest in presidential history but I think it would have great appeal to anyone exploring life in the Southeast during those years. A very enjoyable read!
May 21, 2024
Five wonderful stars for this collection of remembrances of a depression era rural Georgia boyhood. President Carter shares tales of his family, his adventures and his friendships. Gathered over a period of seven years, and I'm sure meticulously curated, these stories retain authenticity and honesty. Of deep interest to me were his stories of farming and livestock. More than once I remembered sitting around my grandparents dining room table in their small town, hearing stories of aunts uncles and cousins still farming the old homesteads. President Carter's writing is grammatically exquisite yet straightforward, and evokes visuals clear and detailed. Exemplary memoir.
January 21, 2025
This is such an interesting book! I sure hope I get to meet him someday! Nothing bad happened right?
December 15, 2025
A very sweet South Georgia picture. I LOVED the story about the boxing match his family listened to on the radio. A great peak into how Jimmy Carter became who he was :').
October 12, 2017
This memoir was written Jimmy Carter the former US President. It focuses on his childhood in Plains Georgia up until the time he left to go to college. I'm not one for reading biographies but found the book in library on a cruise ship. It written in a very readable style and presents a series of anecdotes from in and around the farm where he was raised. It is a story of growing up in the great depression. Although Carter does acknowledge that they did not do too badly.
He dedicates the memoir to his grandson or perhaps great grandson. It is with some sadness that he acknowledges that after 6 generations he is the last on the forma with his children and grandchildren having moved away from rural life. The memoir is an attempt to tell the story of his childhood.
He does write a lot about racial segregation and the ways that people skirted around it to continue their lives. Georgia is in the south of the US so it’s hardly surprising that this is the case. The remnants of this still influence the US to this day.
After the abolition of slavery making "all men free" the decisions were challenged in the US Supreme court. This lead to a judgement of "equal but separate" the most obvious example of this that black children were denied a public education. Rather than being taught in public schools their education was hidden in church halls and scratching for resources. However as a child Carter accepted this as the norm.
I read this quickly and found it an interesting and instructive read. I have always felt that Carter was a more humane US president and this does not dispel that notion.
He dedicates the memoir to his grandson or perhaps great grandson. It is with some sadness that he acknowledges that after 6 generations he is the last on the forma with his children and grandchildren having moved away from rural life. The memoir is an attempt to tell the story of his childhood.
He does write a lot about racial segregation and the ways that people skirted around it to continue their lives. Georgia is in the south of the US so it’s hardly surprising that this is the case. The remnants of this still influence the US to this day.
After the abolition of slavery making "all men free" the decisions were challenged in the US Supreme court. This lead to a judgement of "equal but separate" the most obvious example of this that black children were denied a public education. Rather than being taught in public schools their education was hidden in church halls and scratching for resources. However as a child Carter accepted this as the norm.
I read this quickly and found it an interesting and instructive read. I have always felt that Carter was a more humane US president and this does not dispel that notion.
February 5, 2011
This well written memoir is essentially a slice of Jimmy Carter's life until he leaves for Annapolis in his Sophmore year of college. He shows you what his day-to-day life was like on his farm in Archery (a town which no longer exists) and at home and in school in Plains, and also gives you the background for his ancestors and his knowledge of and memories of his grandparents and parents.
What I found most fascinating was Jimmy Carter's view into every day life on his farm in the South during the depression. How they worked, what the economics was for him and the sharecroppers and day laborers on the farm and for his friends (all black), and what the social and political situations were.
Of course, Jimmy Carter could only report what he remembered and certainly his view would have been tempered by what was normal to him as opposed to how those same events would have been shared by his black neighbors, but he clearly tries to give us as much of their view as possible and also tries to see his childhood and the childhoods of his friends through adult eyes so that we can see how their lives differed from his. I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of Georgia in the 30s and 40s. Recommended.
What I found most fascinating was Jimmy Carter's view into every day life on his farm in the South during the depression. How they worked, what the economics was for him and the sharecroppers and day laborers on the farm and for his friends (all black), and what the social and political situations were.
Of course, Jimmy Carter could only report what he remembered and certainly his view would have been tempered by what was normal to him as opposed to how those same events would have been shared by his black neighbors, but he clearly tries to give us as much of their view as possible and also tries to see his childhood and the childhoods of his friends through adult eyes so that we can see how their lives differed from his. I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir of Georgia in the 30s and 40s. Recommended.
November 29, 2017
Jimmy Carter is the ray of sunshine piercing the gathering Trumpian storm clouds of gloom. A president CAN be a paragon of virtue, and Carter’s childhood on the farm, tending to the fields and farmyard just like his poor tenant neighbors is in striking contrast to the life of rich boy privileged Trump, born with the proverbial silver spoon in mouth. At its best, this nation can be discerning and raise a deserving honorable and compassionate person to this nation’s highest office. Read the book to find out how Carter built the character he exhibits today.
Read
January 19, 2022An Hour Before Daylight is a autobiography of President Jimmy Carter's childhood in the rural south during the Great Depression. I read this book when I was in middle school and have forgotten most of the details of the book by now.
May 6, 2008
The rural South in which Jimmy Carter grew up was a world increasingly unfamiliar to contemporary people. Carter's memoir will prove more and more valuable as time passes.
May 5, 2022
After watching the documentary "Jimmy Carter, The Rock n' Roll President" on HBO, I took a liking to the 39th president from Georgia. His presidency was conflicted with many issues such as stagflation and he didn't win a re-election, but he was nonetheless proud of the work he accomplished during his presidency, which included establishing the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. After his presidential term, him and his wife Rossalyn remain activity in various organizations and causes throughout the world.
This book covers his earliest days as a boy growing up in Archery and Plains to his entering into the US Navy. Carter's father was a hard-working and brilliant-minded farmer that was highly respected by everyone. Growing up in the South post-depression was also a time of racial segregation in the US, but the Carter's were known to take care of everyone regardless of race. They would cook meals for those in need and employ both white and black workers. Jimmy Carter even mentions that several black individuals greatly influenced him in his early days.
There were a few interesting tidbits from the book. Jimmy's father was a skilled baseball player and played with some travelling legion teams throughout Georgia, and in the town of Americus, South of Atlanta, the St. Louis Cardinals would stop through for exhibition games. I plan to get down to Americus later this year to tour the historic site of Andersonville Prison. I'll also see if there is any interesting baseball history in the town. Jimmy and Rossalyn were also childhood neighbors in Plains and they still live in Plains to this day - in the same home they purchased after his presidency.
Jimmy Carter is also a member of the Georgia hunting and fishing hall of fame. He is an avid outdoorsman and that was made evident throughout the book. He would spend a lot of his time venturing around the swamps and outdoor areas that surround Plains and he has kept that interest throughout his life.
This book covers his earliest days as a boy growing up in Archery and Plains to his entering into the US Navy. Carter's father was a hard-working and brilliant-minded farmer that was highly respected by everyone. Growing up in the South post-depression was also a time of racial segregation in the US, but the Carter's were known to take care of everyone regardless of race. They would cook meals for those in need and employ both white and black workers. Jimmy Carter even mentions that several black individuals greatly influenced him in his early days.
There were a few interesting tidbits from the book. Jimmy's father was a skilled baseball player and played with some travelling legion teams throughout Georgia, and in the town of Americus, South of Atlanta, the St. Louis Cardinals would stop through for exhibition games. I plan to get down to Americus later this year to tour the historic site of Andersonville Prison. I'll also see if there is any interesting baseball history in the town. Jimmy and Rossalyn were also childhood neighbors in Plains and they still live in Plains to this day - in the same home they purchased after his presidency.
Jimmy Carter is also a member of the Georgia hunting and fishing hall of fame. He is an avid outdoorsman and that was made evident throughout the book. He would spend a lot of his time venturing around the swamps and outdoor areas that surround Plains and he has kept that interest throughout his life.
April 3, 2022
Jimmy Carter brings us his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement was imagined. He writes vividly, powerfully, and honestly about his family and the area he grew up in--providing a portrait of the rhythms of farming in a sharecropping economy and giving us an intimate look at his father, who was a brilliant farmer. Earl Carter was a strict segregationist, but treated black workers with respect and fairness--allowing his son to play with the children of his black farm workers and to learn farming and life-long skills from the parents. His mother was strong-willed, well-read, and a registered nurse who flouted segregation in many small ways. He also tells us of the five other people who shaped his young life--three of whom were black
Told as if he were reminiscing--one topic leads to another and then circles back again. It is a rich, evocative story of a time when family was first and closest. A time when everyone worked hard, played hard, and spent evenings sitting on the front porch. A time when everyone knew their neighbors--and their vehicles, mules, and dogs--and knew when someone or something was around who didn't belong. Carter gives us an excellent recollection of what life during the Depression was like for farmers in the South and tells how the times shaped him as well as the nation.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Told as if he were reminiscing--one topic leads to another and then circles back again. It is a rich, evocative story of a time when family was first and closest. A time when everyone worked hard, played hard, and spent evenings sitting on the front porch. A time when everyone knew their neighbors--and their vehicles, mules, and dogs--and knew when someone or something was around who didn't belong. Carter gives us an excellent recollection of what life during the Depression was like for farmers in the South and tells how the times shaped him as well as the nation.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
November 2, 2024
Here it is, early Nov in a tense election year, and this book came recommended to me by a podcast episode about political memoirs. I deeply admire this good man -- who is still with us at 100 years old -- and wanted to spend some time "with him" while he's alive, and while this is a story of early boyhood of a living great, rather than something like a historical document.
Well, it is an odd book. It's an interesting history of growing up in a very specific time and place, and OH BY THE WAY you may not ever realize it, but this farmboy became a president. You will read 241 pages to learn that his Uncle Buddy was county commissioner and a mayor who eventually earned $2/month around 1954...and that is almost as close as you'll get to hearing about a political life. This is strictly his love for Plains and his time as a boy in a time I can really only conceive of as "history."
In these last days of his life, this life story can still feel alive and connected to our 2024 reality. I don't know what will happen with the US election in a few days, but I'm hoping that his history and levelheaded kindness will be honored in our country.
Well, it is an odd book. It's an interesting history of growing up in a very specific time and place, and OH BY THE WAY you may not ever realize it, but this farmboy became a president. You will read 241 pages to learn that his Uncle Buddy was county commissioner and a mayor who eventually earned $2/month around 1954...and that is almost as close as you'll get to hearing about a political life. This is strictly his love for Plains and his time as a boy in a time I can really only conceive of as "history."
In these last days of his life, this life story can still feel alive and connected to our 2024 reality. I don't know what will happen with the US election in a few days, but I'm hoping that his history and levelheaded kindness will be honored in our country.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 486 reviews