The Best Books by Jimmy Carter
Released posthumously, Jimmy Carter: The Last Interview features interviews over his lifetime, including four that have never been published before. The final interview was a joint conversation with his wife Rosalynn on their 75th wedding anniversary.
An Hour Before Daylight is Carter’s tale of growing up in rural Georgia. “It’s a beautiful book — I don’t mean it’s a beautiful book for a president to have written, it’s a beautiful book for any American author,” says historian Craig Fehrman. “It captures the messiness of the South that he grew up in. It’s so detailed and simple and lyrical and honest that it’s also a good reminder of the America Jimmy Carter fell in love with when he was this long-shot outsider running for president.”
Drawing on his experience negotiating the Camp David Accords and his travels to Israel and Palestine, the former president lays out what steps must be taken for a successful two state solution in the region in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
“Americans don’t want to know and many Israelis don’t want to know what is going on inside Palestine. It’s a terrible human rights persecution that far transcends what any outsider would imagine,” Carter said in 2007. “And there are powerful political forces in America that prevent any objective analysis of the problem in the Holy Land.”
In Christmas in Plains, Carter remembers the festive days of his childhood: “the simplicity of family and community gift-giving, his father’s eggnog, the children’s house decorations, the school Nativity pageant, the fireworks, Luke’s story of the birth of Christ, and the poignancy of his black neighbors’ poverty.”
Carter’s final book, Faith: A Journey for All, reflects on his Christian faith. As he writes, “The issue of faith arises in almost every area of human existence, so it is important to understand its multiple meanings. In this book, my primary goal is to explore the broader meaning of faith, its far-reaching effect on our lives, and its relationship to past, present, and future events in America and around the world. The religious aspects of faith are also covered, since this is how the word is most often used, and I have included a description of the ways my faith has guided and sustained me, as well as how it has challenged and driven me to seek a closer and better relationship with people and with God.”
Decades after he left the presidency, Carter published an edited, annotated version of the diary he kept during his four year tenure. “By carefully selecting the most illuminating and relevant entries, Carter has provided us with an astonishingly intimate view of his presidency. Day by day, we see his forceful advocacy for nuclear containment, sustainable energy, human rights, and peace in the Middle East. We witness his interactions with such complex personalities as Ted Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, Joe Biden, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin,” the publisher notes. Plus, the text features his retrospective reflections on what happened.
“Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jeremy who lived with his mother in a small house near the sea. His mother earned a bare living for the two of them by washing clothes for some of the wealthy families in their town. Jeremy loved her very much…” This children’s book written by Carter and illustrated by his daughter Amy Carter was based on a story he used to tell her as a child. Here, watch a video of him reading the story to young Georgia children.
“As we’ve grown older, the results have been surprisingly good,” Carter writes. The Virtues of Aging, published in 1998 when he was in his seventies, blends memoir and advice to write about what it means to get older. As the publisher writes, “The Virtues of Aging celebrates both the blessings that come to us as we grow older and the blessings older people can bestow upon others. An important and moving book, written with gentleness, humor, and love, The Virtues of Aging is a treasure for readers of all ages.”
In Our Endangered Values (published in the UK as Faith & Freedom: The Christian Challenge for the World), Carter makes an argument for the separation of church and state. “As a private citizen, I will deliberately mix religion and politics in this book,” he writes. “I will analyze moral values from a religious point of view, and then include my assessment of the adverse impact of recent political decisions on these same values.”
Carter won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his recording of this book.
In Beyond the White House, Carter details his work with the Carter Center. As he writes, “The principles of The Carter Center have been the same ones that should characterize our nation, or any individual They are the beliefs inherent in all the great world religions, including commitments to peace, justice, freedom, humility, forgiveness or an attempt to find accommodation with potential foes, generosity, human rights or fair treatment of others, protection of the environment, and the alleviation of suffering. This is our agenda for the future.”
Everything to Gain, first published in 1987, is the account of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s life after their years in the White House. They co-wrote it, and “they vowed they’d never work together again,” Carter’s biographer Jonathan Alter said. “Both of them described it to me as one of the low points of their marriage.”
No politics are to be found in Sharing Good Times, which finds Carter reflecting on “things that matter most, the simple relaxed days and nights that he has enjoyed with family and friends through the years and across the generations.” The publisher notes: “Here are lively, witty accounts of exploring the outdoors with his father; making furniture; painting; pursuing new adventures and going places with children, grandchildren, and friends; and sharing life with his wife, Rosalynn.”
We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land is another book of Carter’s that focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and lays out his plan for peace. “The time is now,” he writes in the introduction (it was published in 2009). “Peace is possible.” This was a follow up to Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, and the first chapter begins with him reflecting on the controversy that book generated.
In this coffee table book, Carter brings readers through his love for woodworking. “I like to see what I have done, what I have made,” he writes. “The pleasure does not fade as the years go by; in fact, with age, my diminished physical strength has eliminated some of the formerly competing hobbies and made woodworking even more precious to me.”
Carter also wrote a loving tribute to his mother, Lillian Carter. “Modern readers who assume that church-going Southern Baptists don’t swear, drink or work to promote birth control will find Lillian an eye-opener. She played an unofficial though vital role as the Carter administration’s goodwill ambassador around the world—she almost persuaded our government to let Muhammad Ali bargain with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini for our hostages taken in 1979,” Publisher’s Weekly wrote in their review. A Remarkable Mother offers, well, remarkable insight into the woman who raised a president.
After he lost reelection, Carter moved back to Plains, Georgia, where he started teaching Sunday School at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown. Living Faith draws on this experience, “exploring the values closest to his heart and the personal beliefs that have nurtured and sustained him.”
This is the first book Carter ever wrote. “It was a campaign book. There wasn’t a lot of interest, so he published it with a small religious press and it became a huge bestseller. It got republished as a mass market paperback and sold nearly a million copies,” historian Craig Fehrman says.
In A Call to Action, Carter writes about the ongoing discrimination and violence against women and girls. “The most serious and unaddressed worldwide challenge is the deprivation and abuse of women and girls, largely caused by a false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts and growing tolerance of violence and warfare,” he writes. (Read more about the book on the Carter Center.)
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram.
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