“A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety,” by Jimmy Carter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015. 238 pages, $28 (hardcover).

Former President Jimmy Carter is a prolific writer on a range of topics, not all of them historical or political. Many who can resurrect memories of Carter wearing a sweater while seated by a fireplace in the White House library will recall a technique borrowed from Franklin D. Roosevelt for communicating with the American people, the fireside chat.

Carter’s reflections are informal and direct, almost as if he were responding to his listeners’ questions. Whatever happens to be on his mind at a given moment is shared through eight well-organized chapters. His reflections begin with his early years in Georgia and continue through his U.S. Navy career, his rise to political prominence, his presidency and post-presidency and his “retirement,” assuming a person of his physical, mental and spiritual energy could ever retire.

Select poems and paintings by Carter are interspersed throughout the text. The reader will quickly conclude that he is a better writer than artist.

One comes to the quick realization that Carter’s life was out of the ordinary for white men of his generation, given that his closest friends for the first decade of his life were black. His first chapter, “Archery and the Race Issue,” goes into depth regarding a self-sustaining lifestyle on a farm with neither running water or electricity and the important role that African-American neighbors played in it. He was particularly close to Jack and Rachel Clark and wrote, “Except for my parents, Rachel Clark was the person closest to me.”

He also emphasized the important role of his father in his life. Earl Carter was described as a man generous with constructive criticism but rarely given to accolades. Although fair and respectful of his African-American neighbors and employees, the elder Carter believed the two races should be segregated. The future president’s mother, Lillian Carter (lifelong nurse and Peace Corps volunteer in India at age 70), on the other hand, was known in the community for her refusal to accept “any restraints on her treatment of black citizens as equals.”

It is rather ironic that Jimmy Carter, of all people, would be snubbed by a black president, but such is the life of a perceived political liability. While basically supportive of President Barack Obama, Carter does not shy away from criticizing him for “lack of involvement” in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and for requesting that he not speak at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, breaking a long tradition of recognizing past presidents.

“Navy Years,” Carter’s second chapter, explores his time at Georgia Tech and the Naval Academy, his marriage to Rosalynn and his military postings, particularly his assignments as an electronics officer and later his hands-on activities in early nuclear submarines with Adm. Hyman G. Rickover. The chapter is laced with political snippets (as are most of his chapters) dealing with President Harry Truman’s command to use nuclear bombs to end World War II and the desegregation of the armed forces and U.S. Civil Service. Others concern Carter’s interest in Chinese history, submarine warfare, deployment of killer submarines, nuclear physics and radiation absorption. All these coalesced during his presidency and made him uniquely qualified to handle pressing issues on these and other challenges of his time in office.

The chapter concludes with the passing of his father and his agonizing decision to leave the Navy, and it is a segue to the third chapter. “Back to Georgia” accounts for Carter’s development as a businessman and farmer raising seed peanuts, his entry into local and state politics, ongoing racial strife and low educational standards. Key to understanding this phase of his life was an election for governor stolen from him by an unscrupulous politician through the time-honored techniques of stuffed ballot boxes, cemetery voters and other creative devices to provide a desired outcome. Deeply disappointed and disillusioned with politics, Carter became involved with pioneer church missions, which afforded him the opportunity both to deepen his faith and to reflect and plan for a future campaign for the Georgia governorship.

Chapters four through seven deal with Carter’s successful election to the state Senate, his governorship and successful reforms in education, health care, taxation, the environment and bringing international trade to Georgia and eventually his successful presidential bid.

In sharp contrast to current election financing, Carter wrote in 1975, Gerald “Ford and I chose not to raise any campaign funds from corporate or private contributors but to finance our general election campaigns from the dollar each taxpayer could designate for this purpose.” The Carter presidency would be marked by two major themes: Keep the peace and advance human rights. He thanked Ford for “healing the nation,” in reference to the unpopular pardoning of Richard Nixon, and took the second (and in some quarters equally unpopular) step in pardoning Vietnam War draft evaders. He took great pride in inaugurating the Kennedy Center Honors program in 1978 and bringing a wide assortment of American musical talent to the White House to entertain foreign guests.

Some interrelationships between allies and potential adversaries were curiously reversed. Carter found South Korean President Gen. Park Chung-hee and Germany’s Helmut Schmitt to be very contentious, but saw Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping as very cordial. Xiaoping consented to Carter’s request to allow Bibles to be distributed freely in China, Carter wrote, claiming that “the result of Deng Xiaoping’s decision is that China is now the fastest-growing Christian nation.”

Carter’s initial encounters with Ted Kennedy were very positive but deteriorated as the latter began his own presidential campaign and refused to support Carter’s proposed health plan. His reliance on moderate Republicans such as Howard Baker and John Rhodes on legislation of common interest stands in stark contrast to current executive and legislative relationships. Carter also documents warm relations with former President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State James Baker, who took full advantage of the Carter Center’s resources during their time in office, and his friendships with Hubert Humphrey and Ford.

Carter’s detailed and convincing account of the Panama Canal treaty was explicit in the behind-the-scenes maneuvering necessary to get enough votes for ratification, certainly reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s horse-trading to secure the 13th Amendment. Paying high tribute to those senators who cast the deciding votes, Carter wrote, “This was the most courageous vote in the history of the U.S. Senate. Of those 20 who voted for the treaties and were up for election that year, only seven retained their seats and 11 supporters – plus one president – were defeated two years later.” 

Carter spends surprisingly little time on the Camp David accords with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, having written a separate and far more detailed account of these 13 days in “Keeping Faith.” Still he shared the rather enticing detail that Sadat at one point in the conference had his bags packed and was sitting on the tarmac, waiting for a helicopter to fly him out. 

He does not avoid the painful final year of his presidency marked by the 1979 energy crisis, Three Mile Island, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the hostage crisis in Iran. “I sent a warning to the Ayatollah during the first month that I would close all access by Iran to the outside world if a hostage was harmed and would act militarily if one was killed.” He called the failed rescue attempt a “tragedy and bitter disappointment.” “Since I had refrained from exerting military force to punish the Iranians, the failure to secure the freedom of the hostages made me vulnerable to (Republican) allegations that I was an ineffective leader.”

Once asked which he might have preferred, re-election to a second presidential term or the Carter Center, he paused barely a second before saying the Carter Center. His compelling final chapter, “Back Home,” deals with arguably the most productive of past presidents’ lives. Following details of his academic roles at Emery University, his active church life and the Nobel Peace Prize, he outlines the construction and goals of the Carter Center – peace, agriculture, health care, eradication of tropical diseases – and those subjects most dear to him, peace for Israel and Habitat for Humanity.

— Reviewed by Dwight Pounds, Ph.D., retired U.S. Air Force colonel