The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Quest for Global Peace

Jimmy Carter's post-presidential career as peripatetic global peacemaker has been dismissed by critics as na ve and sanctimonious, notes University of New Orleans history professor Brinkley. He retorts here, viewing the former president as a deeply ethical leader, the most principled president since Truman and, as ex-president, a ""wandering sage"" and true citizen of the world, working to build democracies or resolve conflicts in nations as diverse as Sudan, Haiti, Bosnia and Nicaragua. Whether one agrees with this assessment, his report on citizen Carter's peacemaking missions and public good works provides an extraordinary, in-depth look at the range of Carter's progressive activities since 1980. Brinkley credits him with defusing a potential military showdown with North Korea in 1994 and averting a U.S. invasion of Haiti the same year. He reveals Carter's scorn for Reagan, whom Brinkley considers ""immoral to the core."" Brinkley documents the Atlanta-based Carter Center's efforts to eradicate disease and improve agricultural efficiency in Africa. His trenchant reporting extends the story detailed in Carter's own books, Everything to Gain (1987) and Talking Peace (1993). Author tour. (May)