The Outlier

June 1, 2021

In this latest book, Bird (American Prometheus) draws heavily from personal accounts to present a thorough understanding of Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) and his presidency. Carter's term as governor of Georgia gained him a national profile as a neoliberal Southern populist; when he ran for president in 1976, the political establishment was skeptical. Bird chronicles Carter's legislative successes (the National Energy Act; Panama Canal treaties) and failures (tax reform; health care), plus the 1978 Camp David Accords. The final year of Carter's presidency was marked by the energy crisis and, most significantly, the Iran hostage crisis. Carter was consumed by his inability to free the hostages, and Bird has written a compelling account of the administration's planning for its failed rescue mission. Carter's re-election campaign against Ronald Reagan makes for painful reading, but his visit with the Iran hostages upon their release is an emotional highlight of the book. Bird concludes with an overview of Carter's post-presidential years. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, has been a strong influence, and their close relationship resonates throughout the book. VERDICT This engaging political biography, similar in scope to Jonathan Alter's His Very Best, will introduce Carter to a new generation, and will remind other readers of a truly transitional time in U.S. politics.--Thomas Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, PA

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Starred review from April 1, 2021
Searching biography of a president whose contributions, the author argues, are undervalued. Though Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) has been "perceived as a 'weak' or hapless executive," that view, writes Pulitzer winner Bird, is "a simplistic caricature." Carter's single term in office was "consequential." Bracketed between the Nixon/Ford and Reagan/Bush eras, it marked such matters as the beginnings of corporate deregulation and the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Carter is also remembered as a scolding moralist. He earns the rubric "outlier" for being a Washington outsider, a former governor swept into higher office largely because he wasn't a Republican--but also, by Bird's sharp account, for taking his own path, often against the counsel of his advisers. For example, he was urged not to hire economist Paul Volcker to lead the fight against inflation, knowing that Volcker "intended to make the economy scream as he faced reelection." Carter's failures, Bird suggests, were often not of his doing: A deeply split Democratic legislature made up then of Southern conservatives (who would soon defect to the GOP) and Northern liberals hampered him, and he had the likes of Edward Kennedy dogging him constantly. The author's sprawling study is sometimes repetitious--e.g., he repeats the observation that Carter made more minority appointments to the federal judiciary than any other president before him. Nonetheless, Bird is a keen biographer of political figures, and he offers a welcome reminder that Carter's liberal impulses were correct while his missteps were often the result of events he could not fully control, as when the Reagan campaign, in a "treasonous caper," putatively met with the Iranian regime to delay release of the Tehran hostages and "scuttle Carter's second-term presidency." Shelve this alongside Jonathan Alter's equally incisive biography, His Very Best. The best study to date of the Carter era and a substantial contribution to the history of the 1970s.

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Starred review from May 1, 2021
Jimmy Carter sprang from Georgia's red soils and embodied all the contradictions of that upbringing. He was often the only white boy among his playmates. Although his father was an avowed racist, Carter's mother determinately practiced racial equality. His father was a quietly successful farmer and businessman, but the son buried himself in books from an early age. According to Pulitzer laureate Bird (The Good Spy, 2015), Jimmy Carter was an atypical Southerner yet never accepted by Northerners. After a successful stint in the U.S. Navy submarine service, he returned to Georgia and slowly gathered around himself a cadre of smart, ambitious politicos who gave him the foundation to propel him from the governor's mansion to the White House. Carter's Presidency started out with high ideals, but was assaulted on all sides by crises foreign (Israel, Iran's revolution) and domestic (oil prices, stagflation). Carter's religiosity and sense of fair play didn't always serve him well, and he was often dismissively perceived as na�ve by older Washington hands. Offering a readable, masterful biography of a complex leader, Bird does a magnificent job characterizing the many strong and fiery personalities in the Carter administration, making them all individuals with virtues and flaws.

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