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High Praise for 'Magisterial' Jimmy Carter in Africa

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Cold War International History Project
History and Public Policy Program
High Praise for 'Magisterial' Jimmy Carter in Africa

The Christian Science Monitor praised the latest publication in the CWIHP book series, Nancy Mitchell's Jimmy Carter in Africa, calling it "by a wide margin the best book about that presidency that's yet appeared."

The single term of Jimmy Carter's presidency, from 1977 to 1981, has typically been summarized by its failures: so-called “stagflation,” national malaise, the Iran hostage crisis, the 1979 energy crisis. Carter himself usually fares no better as a leader, usually characterized as something of a political naif caught between the conciliatory viewpoint of his secretary of state, Cyrus Vance, and the “hawkish” tendencies of his national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Even the sharpest historians are often content with this kind of reduction; it's retailed, for instance, by Nigel Hamilton in his excellent book "American Caesars," in which he goes on to describe Carter as “constitutionally unable ever to admit error, then or later.”

North Carolina State University history professor Nancy Mitchell, in her magisterial new book Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War, aims to overturn such easy verdicts. This is the latest entry in  Stanford's Cold War International History Project series from the Wilson Center, a series that's included such standout books as Ilya Gaiduk's "Divided Together" and Sergo Mikoyan's "The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis." The series aims to add lots of detail and much-needed revisionist zeal to seemingly settled aspects of the 50-year Cold War that did so much to shape the present world.

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War.   Read more

Cold War International History Project

History and Public Policy Program

A global leader in making key archival records accessible and fostering informed analysis, discussion, and debate on foreign policy, past and present.   Read more

History and Public Policy Program

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