Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights, 1975-2020

by E. Stanly Godbold Jr.

Overview

The dual biography of the powerful First Couple who attempted to use their presidency to bring peace, human rights, and justice to all peoples of the world and dedicated the remainder of their long lives to making a safer, more caring world.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's marriage of over seventy-five years is the longest of any American presidential couple and has been described by them as a "full partnership." President Bill Clinton once said that they have changed more lives around the world than any couple in world history. Their lives have been public and private models of honesty and integrity in post-Watergate America.

The second of a two-volume biography of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter by historian E. Stanly Godbold, Jr., this book offers a comprehensive account of the professional and personal lives of the powerful couple who have worked together as reformers in Georgia, President and First Lady of the United States, and founders of the Carter Center to promote international health, conflict resolution, and democracy. It picks up with their departure from the Georgia governor's mansion and their tireless campaign for the Democratic nomination for president in 1976, the first time a Southerner won the White House in over a century. It details the Carter couple's struggle for recognition on a national stage, the challenges of rising energy costs, mounting inflation, geopolitical tensions, and the "October Surprise" that tainted the 1980 election in which they went down to defeat. During these years, Rosalynn demonstrated that she was a better politician than her husband, offering policy advice, serving as ambassador extraordinaire, sitting in on Cabinet meetings, and working determinedly to provide care and respect for those suffering from mental illness. Their post-presidential work has been unprecedented on the international stage with Habitat for Humanity and especially their establishment of the Carter Center to "wage peace, fight disease, build hope." Carter, after reaching the zenith of his career in negotiating the Camp David Accords of 1978, continued for decades to work for peace in the Middle East. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, a prize which he quickly said equally belonged to Rosalynn and to the Carter Center.

Among the greatest peacemakers of the twentieth century, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter emerge from this account as inspirational giants in American history and a shining example of the power of a couple in public service.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197581568
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Pages:	904
Sales rank:	146,622
Product dimensions:	9.33(w) x 6.46(h) x 2.17(d)

About the Author

E. Stanly Godbold, Jr. is Professor Emeritus of History at Mississippi State University and the author of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924-1974. He served as consultant and commentator for the PBS American Experience documentary on the life of Jimmy Carter. He lives in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Candidate from the South
2. It's Going to Happen
3. Mini-Juggernaut
4. The Carters Take New York
5. Jimmy, and Rosalynn, Won
6. The Shadow Presidency
7. A Different Presidency
8. Matters of Style
9. One Hundred Days
10. Rosalynn Steps Out
11. A Rising Tide
12. Quest for Justice: Panama, Israel, Iran
13. Revolutionaries
14. The Perils of Political Courage
15. The Tightrope to Peace
16. Quiet Path to Camp David
17. Miracle at Camp David
18. Life after Camp David
19. Carter's Coup: China
20. Khomeini, Bella, and Rosalynn
21. A White House Signing
22. Dangerous Rhetoric and a Harmless Rabbit
23. SALT II, Enemies, and Allies
24. Crisis of Confidence
25. Kennedys and Terrorists
26. In the Name of God, Iran!
27. The Soviet Union Makes a Move
28. Hostages and Politics
29. Delta Force
30. Keeping Faith
31. An Uphill Battle
32. A Surprise in October
33. The Agony of Defeat
34. Welcome Home
35. When Carter Ruled the World
36. The Carter Center
37. Humanitarians Adrift
38. Navigating Troubled Waters
39. Servant of Peace
40. Tyrants, Books, and Mr. Earl
41. The Nobel Prize
42. Tuned to the World
43. Endangered Values and Palestine Apartheid
44. "Cootie Man" Among the Elders
45. Journey into Eternity
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Although the Carters are the rare presidential couple to admit and value the wife's role in her husband's success, E. Stanly Godbold, Jr. is the first to document how extensively Rosalynn figured in Jimmy's presidency and in the remarkable accomplishments of his post-presidency. Even readers who think they know the Carter record well will find much to savor in this captivating, carefully researched account." — Betty Boyd Caroli, author of Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage that Made a President

"The second volume of this wonderful, deeply researched, and eminently fair dual biography of the Carters invaluably illuminates their remarkable presidency, post-presidency, and partnership." — Laura Kalman, University of California, Santa Barbara

"E. Stanly Godbold's exhaustively researched account of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, beginning with his unlikely campaign for the presidency, explores their personal and their political lives, capturing the sometimes-awkward balance between Jimmy Carter's deep moral compass and his fierce political ambition. No other study of the 39th President has more fully explored the critical role of his wife, Rosalynn, whose ability to capture the mood of Main Street Americans made her an invaluable partner in his presidency and in the years after he left the White House." — Dan Carter, University of South Carolina

"Jimmy Carter, now our oldest former president, is also the president with the longest marriage in US history. Throughout their lives together, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter have been hard working and sincere. They have been devoted to idealistic ambitions—and each other. E. Stanly Godbold, Jr. explores their relationship and its consequences for the nation and the world. His book will hold an important place in the collection of new volumes that revisit and revise the controversial and complicated Carter legacy." — Robert A. Strong, author of Working in the World: Jimmy Carter and the Making of American Foreign Policy

"Impressively researched and clearly presented, this biography does not ignore Carter's occasional missteps and ideological inconsistency, but the thrust is distinctly revisionist. In essence: the Carters were good for the US." — Choice

From the Publisher

07/01/2022

Historian Godbold, using interviews, multiple presidential archival collections, newspaper resources, and relevant secondary literature, presents the sequel to his impressive, comprehensive dual biography Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924–1974. Largely favorable, defensive, in fact, over their uneven electioneering tactics, the author rightly describes the Carters as equal partners in the presidency and in their much longer, more substantive post-presidential lives as proponents of human rights, health, democracy, and social acceptance. Godbold characterizes Jimmy, whose sangfroid checks his temper, as a moralist, cerebral, introspective, reluctant to delegate, inflexible, exasperating, frugal, resilient, and empathetic. The very similar Rosalynn, a feminist pioneer of attending cabinet meetings and traveling solo overseas on behalf of the United States, may be even more intensely political than her partner, although equally willing to recognize that defeat is not destruction. Skilled enough in politics to enter the public sphere, the Carters have risen over snubs from their own party members to remain as beneficial social contributors. VERDICT Like domestic advisor Stuart Eizenstat's President Carter, this offering is similarly suitable for public and academic libraries, general readers, and historians.—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

Library Journal