A Full Life by Jimmy Carter

 Jimmy Carter was born in 1924 in Plains Georgia.  His parents were poor land owners and he grew up in a small community where most of his neighbors were black sharecroppers. They lived humbly without either running water or electricity.  From those humble beginnings Carter's intelligence and work ethics helped him attend college and later be appointed to the United States Naval Academy. After graduation he went through specialized training to serve on submarines, and eventually rose to become a major player in the development and testing of the first nuclear submarines.  When his father died, he left the military and took his young family back to Georgia to take over the running of his father's interests which included both farming, and the distribution of farming supplies and seed to other farmers. He got involved with politics as a champion of civil rights, and eventually was elected of Governor of Georgia. He was so successful in cleaning waist and corruption in Georgia that leaders of the Democratic Party urged him to run for President. He won the election and served for one term.  After being defeated by Ronald Regan in 1981, he spent the rest of his life working for political causes through the Carter  Foundation which sought world wide democracy and improvement of civil rights and economic equity.  

Here is another book from the US 250 celebration list.  I enjoyed it immensely.  It is read by the author and listening the the book felt like I had been invited to his home and allowed to sit while he told stories about his life. I have kept journals since I was 12 years old and the first entry in my very first journal stated that Jimmy Carter had won the election, and that my mother said, because of that, we should get our food storage up to date since there was likely to be a war. My parents were staunch Republicans, so I didn't really have a great opinion of his presidency.  Listening to the stories in the book, however, I feel like he was one of the most moral of the US presidents. He was devoutly Christian and let his religious faith guide his decisions in office. His presidency has not been seen as one of the best in history, but the way he comported himself is so strikingly different from some current politicians, it made me nostalgic for days gone by.  This book is a good choice for those in my demographic who are interested in US political history, but also for those who want to read about someone who tried his whole life to do the right thing. (2015, 272 p)