Review

General Books

Biographies of American Presidents typically devote fleeting attention to the years after the White House. With the exception of John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and possibly Herbert Hoover, not much can be said. Thus a 500-page book on the years after a Chief Executive vacated the Oval Office is, to put it mildly, unusual. But Jimmy Carter was and is a unique former President. Although we are not witnessing a mild revisionism, which assesses his administration, at least his foreign policy, more favorably, the prevailing assessment of his single term is not generally positive. However, it is unquestionable that no President has had a more sustained and effective public life after the White House than the uncommon man from Plains, Georgia.	1
Douglas Brinkley, professor of history and director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans and national print and media commentator, is one of the country's most prolific political writers. He has written political biographies on Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Forrestal, Dean Acheson, and his latest on Rosa Parks. He was well into a projected three-volume biography of Carter, when the former President's news media prominence in 1994 diverted Brinkley's focus to the latter Carter years. This impressive tome is the result. The original project remains in progress. Although Brinkley admires Carter and the volume projects the author's model for a retired elder statesman, the book is not hagiography. At times it comes close. Fortunately, Brinkley is an exceptionally engaging writer since his coverage is as detailed and exhaustive as has been the former President's agenda. Carter's record of activity includes peace making efforts in the Middle East, Bosnia, North Korea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Panama, Nicaragua, and Haiti; election monitoring; Habitat for Humanity; initiatives in famine and disease relief in Africa; the immunization of children; and the creation of the Carter Center. Amidst the kudos, Brinkley also criticizes Carter's actions such as his undercutting Clinton in Haiti and the distracting critique of Bush's Gulf War policy, and thus succeeds in capturing Carter's oft quixotic character and his maddening moral absolutism.	2
Since the hardback issue of the book was so extensively reviewed in 1998, I will confine my remaining remarks to the value of this paperback edition as a classroom source. I teach an advanced course on recent political history organized largely by Presidential administrations. Obviously, my course focuses heavily upon the Nixon and Reagan responses to the continuing New Deal philosophy that had dominated post-war America. The Carter years were a very important transitional time and a differing perspective between these two Republican reactions. Even with the increased scholarly interest in the Carter administration, I have not found a book on the Carter administration that works well for my particular course. Several good volumes exist, but either they are not particularly readable or have other drawbacks that have made them less than popular sources. Therefore, even if a somewhat unconventional selection. Brinkley's book is a good choice.	3
Few if any Presidents entered the White House under more difficult conditions than did Carter. He inherited a miasma not of his own making--the disillusionment of Watergate, the economic pain of the Arab Oil Boycott, and the general dismay and disillusionment of a nation forced to confront its vulnerabilities to the new domestic and world order. At least domestically, Carter did not distinguish himself in dealing with this environment. However, Brinkley's treatment of the man raises the interesting question: What might Carter have accomplished in a more normal circumstance or had not the fate of the Iranian hostages sabotaged his chance for a second term? These may be counterfactual questions, but they are the kind of issues that can be raised in the classroom.	4
The Unfinished Presidency offers the opportunity to compare the Carter approach still inchoately manifest by the time he left office against the approaches of the three Presidents who followed him. Since another of the course readings is a book quite favorable to Reagan, Brinkley's perspective affords good comparative analysis of the two approaches, each delivered by articulate advocates. The Carter-Clinton confluence and conflicts also make good comparisons. The book would also work well for a course that concentrates on comparative American foreign policy approaches. Do I wish that the treatise were shorter and more succinct, especially for my classroom purposes? Yes. But that aside, Brinkley has made a valuable contribution both to recent political history and as a potential classroom source.	5
Converse College   Joe P. Dunn

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