The Outlier by Kai Bird

The Outlier by Kai Bird

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

This is superior history, superbly researched and marvelously written.--Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author of American Moonshot

Four decades after Ronald Reagan's landslide win in 1980, Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency is often labeled a failure; indeed, many Americans view Carter as the only ex-president to have used the White House as a stepping-stone to greater achievements. But in retrospect the Carter political odyssey is a rich and human story, marked by both formidable accomplishments and painful political adversity. In this deeply researched, brilliantly written account, Kai Bird expertly unfolds the Carter saga as a tragic tipping point in American history.

As president, Carter was not merely an outsider, but an outlier. He was the only president in a century to grow up in the heart of the Deep South, and his born-again Christianity made him the most openly religious president in memory. This outlier brought to the White House a rare mix of humility, candor--and unnerving self-confidence that neither Washington nor America was ready to embrace. Decades before today's public reckoning with the vast gulf between America's ethos and its actions, Carter looked out on a nation torn by race and demoralized by Watergate and Vietnam and prescribed a radical self-examination from which voters recoiled. The cost of his unshakable belief in doing the right thing would be a second term--and the ascendance of Reagan.

In these remarkable pages, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Bird traces the arc of Carter's administration, from his aggressive domestic agenda to his controversial foreign policy record, taking readers inside the Oval Office and through Carter's battles with both a political establishment and a Washington press corps that proved as adversarial as any foreign power. Bird shows how issues still hotly debated today--from national health care to growing inequality and racism to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--burned at the heart of Carter's America, and consumed a president who found a moral duty in solving them.

Drawing on interviews with Carter and members of his administration and recently declassified documents, Bird delivers a profound, clear-eyed evaluation of a leader whose legacy has been deeply misunderstood. The Outlier is the definitive account of an enigmatic presidency--both as it really happened and as it is remembered in the American consciousness.

Martin J. and Kai Bird are the co-authors of the book. Sherwin is the author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. F. Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography. The National Book Critics Circle Prize for Biography went to Robert Oppenheimer (2005). Among his other works is The Chairman: John J. The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy, Brothers in Arms (1998) and McCloy, the Creation of the American Establishment (1992).

The Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the German Marshall Fund, and the Rockefeller Foundation have all given Bird fellowships. He lives in Kathmandu, Nepal, with his wife and son as a contributing editor of The Nation.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780451495235
ISBN 10	0451495233
Title	The Outlier
Author	Kai Bird
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	2021-06-15
Number of pages	832
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.