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livruther's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
This book opens with a prologue wherein the author's thesis is that Carter's presidency was underrated, while his post presidency was underrated. I do not think that Jonathan Alter succeeded in proving this thesis. In my opinion, he did not try hard enough to actually prove either point, and when he did insert his opinion, it felt like the wrong time. He did point out, though, that most of Carter's accomplishments were either ignored, credited to Reagan, or credited to one of his Democratic successors. I did learn a lot about Carter, though some parts were hard to read and left me feeling like Alter was too critical of Carter. I acknowledge that these feelings may just stem from my own bias because it is hard for me to accept criticism of Carter. As a student of history, sometimes it seems like everything sucks, people are evil, and good things are rare, but I always look upon Carter as someone who genuinely tried his best to make a positive difference in the world, which constantly inspires me. Speaking of trying his best, I also do not feel that Alter did a good job of emphasizing the title and showing the many ways that Carter gave 110% to the presidency. His discussion of the gas crisis could have been more coherent, too. Finally, Alter constantly mentions how Carter was obsessively detail-oriented, but one could say that this book is obsessively detail-oriented. There was no reason for it to be so long. If he truly wanted to fight widespread misconceptions about Carter (most of which stem from the cynical post-Watergate media), he would make this book shorter and thereby more accessible.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
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