The Outlier

The Unfinished Presidency Of Jimmy Carter

The Outlier
Kai Bird
RRP:
NZ$ 79.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 63.20
Hardback
h235 x 156mm - 832pg
11 May 2021 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780451495235
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
An essential re-evaluation of the complex triumphs and tragedies of Jimmy Carter' s presidential legacy--from the expert biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus Ever since Ronald Reagan' s landslide win in November 1980, pundits have labeled Jimmy Carter' s single term in the White House a failed presidency. But Carter' s time as president is a compelling and underexplored story, marked by accomplishment and adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, the first full presidential biography of Jimmy Carter, Kai Bird approaches Carter' s presidency with an expert hand, unfolding the story of Carter' s four years with few allies inside Washington and a great many critics in the media. As president, Carter was not merely an outsider, but indeed an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the old confederacy, and though he held strongly to the separation of church and state, his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. As Bird shows, this background manifested itself in an unusual complex of arrogance, humility, and candor that neither Washington nor America was prepared to embrace. Forty years before today' s broad public reckoning with the vast gulf between America' s creed and its actions, Carter looked out over a nation torn by race, crippled by stagflation, and demoralized by both Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters ultimately recoiled. The cost of Carter' s unshakeable belief in doing the right thing would be a second term--and the ascendance of Reagan. The issues that Carter contended with in the late 1970s are still hotly debated today: national health care, growing inequality, energy independence, racism, immigration, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forty years after voters turned him out of the White House, Carter appears remarkably prescient on the major issues facing the country in the twenty-first century, even if in his own time he was a prophet scorned. Drawing on interviews with members of Carter' s administration as well as recently unclassified documents from his presidential library, Bird delivers a profoundly thorough, clear-eyed evaluation of a president whose legacy has been debated, dismissed, and misunderstood The Outlier is this generation' s definitive account of an enigmatic presidency--as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.
"This is superior history, superbly researched and marvelously written. "--Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of American Moonshot"An excellent study . . . Thanks to The Outlier, we have a much clearer grasp of why Carter' s presidency, flawed as it was, mattered--and how it frequently succeeded. "--PopMatters"This beautifully written book will take its place alongside other superb one-volume biographies of American presidents. The Outlier will raise readers' estimates of Jimmy Carter' s term in office. "--Robert Dallek, New York Times bestselling author of Franklin D. Roosevelt and An Unfinished Life"A grand work of revisionist history, prodigiously researched and gracefully written, The Outlier tells the story of a singular man and a unique presidency at a critical point in American and world history. "--David Nasaw, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Million"Bird tells the story with sympathy, intelligence, and a wealth of marvelously organized information. The Outlier is a pleasure to read. "--Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments "Kai Bird' s brilliant biography doesn' t just capture Jimmy Carter' s decency and courage. It reminds us what America can still learn from him today. "--Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism "Books about presidents are often fat and dull--not this one. Bird has talked to everybody and written a compelling account of the most underrated president in American history. "--Thomas Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Killing of Crazy Horse "It' s time that Jimmy Carter gets his due, and Kai Bird' s biography is a giant step in that direction. "--Richard Moe, author of Roosevelt' s Second Act "Incisive . . . 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 . . . [The Outlier is] the best study to date of the Carter era and a substantial contribution to the history of the 1970s. "--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Bird skillfully paints Carter as a mix of genuine idealism and ' clear-eyed ruthlessness' behind a folksy facade, and shrewdly analyzes the forces of stagflation, deindustrialization, and U. S. imperial decline . . . that hobbled him. The result is a lucid, penetrating portrait that should spur reconsideration of Carter' s much-maligned presidency. "--Publishers Weekly "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. "--Booklist (starred review)
Kai Bird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist. He is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, and William Bundy. He won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin). His work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He lives in New York City with his wife, Susan Goldmark.
Status: No local stock, title imported to order
ISBN-13: 9780451495235
Published: 11 May 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Crown Publications
Publisher: Random House USA Inc
Format: Hardback
Height: 235mm
Width: 156mm
Pages: 832

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