His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life

By Jonathan Alter, Simon & Schuster, 782 pages, $37.50

ter’s faults and failures as well as his successes, to give us a fully developed portrait of the man in his historical context.

The book delves in detail into Carter’s childhood in rural Georgia, where the boy was shaped by his parents: demanding, conservative Earl and adventurous, liberal (for the time and place) Lillian. Carter’s prodigious work ethic and deeply felt religious faith grew from these earliest days.

Second to Carter himself, the most dominant figure throughout the book is his wife, Rosalynn. The two met when Jimmy was 3 years old, a couple of days after Miss Lillian, who was a nurse and midwife, delivered Rosalynn. Jimmy didn’t notice her much until he came home on leave from the Naval Academy and was smitten by the 18year-old beauty.

Alter’s recounting of Carter’s presidential run is fascinating. It began almost as soon as Carter was elected governor of Georgia, even though he was unknown to most of the nation. Assisted by a young, irreverent cadre of campaign advisers, he was the first presidential candidate to emphasize the Iowa caucuses, and he became the first to voluntarily release his tax returns, setting a standard that every subsequent candidate would meet, save one.

Carter brought human rights to the forefront in U.S. foreign policy. He appointed unprecedented numbers of women and minorities to federal courts and increased diversity throughout the government. Alter offers a remarkably detailed account of Carter’s signature achievement, the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt.

But those achievements were often overshadowed by other problems that shaped public opinion; his favorability ratings as president ranged from 75% to 28%.

When Islamic radicals raided the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, in 1979, taking 52 Americans hostage, it sparked a crisis that lasted for more than a year despite Carter’s intense diplomatic and military efforts. The hostages were not released until Jan. 20, 1981, minutes after new President Ronald Reagan completed his inaugural address.

In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Price for a lifetime of achievements. He has published 32 books; well into his 90s, despite major health crises including cancer and broken bones, he helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity and taught Sunday school classes in Plains, where he and Rosalynn live.