White House Diary, Jimmy Carter
White House Diary, Jimmy Carter
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White House Diary

Author: Jimmy Carter

Narrator: Boyd Gaines

Unabridged: 23 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/20/2010


Synopsis

The edited, annotated New York Times bestselling diary of President Jimmy Carter—filled with insights into his presidency, his relationships with friends and foes, and his lasting impact on issues that still preoccupy America and the world.

Each day during his presidency, Jimmy Carter made several entries in a private diary, recording his thoughts, impressions, delights, and frustrations. He offered unvarnished assessments of cabinet members, congressmen, and foreign leaders; he narrated the progress of secret negotiations such as those that led to the Camp David Accords. When his four-year term came to an end in early 1981, the diary amounted to more than five thousand pages. But this extraordinary document has never been made public—until now.

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. We get the inside story of his so-called "malaise speech," his bruising battle for the 1980 Democratic nomination, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Remarkably, we also get Carter's retrospective comments on these topics and more: thirty years after the fact, he has annotated the diary with his candid reflections on the people and events that shaped his presidency, and on the many lessons learned.

Carter is now widely seen as one of the truly wise men of our time. Offering an unprecedented look at both the man and his tenure, White House Diary is a fascinating audiobook that stands as a unique contribution to the history of the American presidency.

About Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He authored several bestselling books, including White House Diary and Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Raised on a peanut farm in Plains, Georgia, he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946 and served in the Navy for seven years before entering politics, becoming governor in 1971. Elected president in 1976, he championed human rights and achieved significant milestones, including the Israel-Egypt peace treaty and the Panama Canal treaties. After his presidency, he and his wife Rosalynn co-founded the Carter Center, a nonpartisan organization working to advance human rights and democracy, resolve conflicts, and relieve suffering from disease and hunger around the world. He lived in Plains, Georgia, until his death in 2024 at age 100.

About Boyd Gaines

Boyd Gaines has narrated more than fifty audiobooks, including titles for Ernest Hemingway, Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King. He also read Jimmy Carter’s White House Diary for Macmillan Audio. Of his performance in Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen's Grant Comes East, which won an Earphones Award, AudioFile magazine said, "Gaines delivers all with the deft touch of a master tactician.  It's truly a remarkable performance." Gaines’s many film credits include The Robber Barons of Wall Street, Second Best, I'm Not Rappaport, Heartbreak Ridge, Fame, and Porky’s.  He's won four Tony Awards for performances in The Heidi Chronicles, She Loves Me, Contact, and Gypsy.  He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Journey's End.  On television, he's appeared in The Good Wife, Law & Order, 100 Centre Street, A Woman Called Jackie, A Son's Promise, and in the popular series One Day at a Time


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeffrey

”A scholarly assessment after I left office showed that I had the most unfavorable press coverage of the century; with a net of negative news stories every month except for my first one, after my family and I walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. Despite frequent news conferences and a......more

Goodreads review by Darryl

Since I was only a small kid when Jimmy Carter was president, I found the book very interesting. You're basically reading his daily diary, so you have his personal insights on Congress, particular lawmakers (he and Teddy Kennedy did not get along at all) and issues, like the Panama Canal Treaty and......more

Goodreads review by Bruce

This diary pretty much puts on display the reasons for Carter being a one-term president. The first 2-1/2 years, the entries are probably 95% related to foreign affairs. Then, when it's too late, there are some, but still not many, entries regarding the horrendous inflation, unemployment and interes......more

Goodreads review by Erwin

Fascinating. One of the most interesting books I've ever read. I've also read autobiographies of most recent presidents (bush, clinton, reagan, nixon). Absolutely fascinating to compare what each writes about. Regan writes mostly about who he's meeting for political benefit. Nixon writes almost exclu......more


Quotes

“Now, with his White House Diary, we have amazing access to the nitty-gritty, day-by-day account Carter kept during his four years in office, with the added insight of his annotations and explanatory notes.” —BookPage, part of "Sound advice for gift lists"